SIWFF champions beauty of human imperfection in film

The Seoul International Women's Film Festival (SIWFF) names actor Lee Yeon as a SIWFFstar, the title given to the official ambassador of the festival / Courtesy of SIWFF

A flickering screen once was a sign of technological limitation. This year, the Seoul International Women's Film Festival (SIWFF) is using it as a sign of authenticity.

Rounding out the summer and wrapping up the month of August, the 28th SIWFF will run from Aug. 20-26. Screenings and industry panels will take place across seven days at Megabox Sinchon and the Korean Film Archive's Cinematheque KOFA, under the festival's longtime slogan, "See the World Through Women's Eyes!"

This year's theme, "Reimagining F," is a continuation from last year, where the "F" has stood for female, film, fellowship and festival. This year’s edition adds a new focus: the flicker.

The trailer for the festival sets up the idea. An old CRT television flickers, a praxinoscope spins through a childlike animation and then artificial intelligence (AI) prompts appear typed out on an old typewriter. The imagery plays off the imperfection of older analog tools to contrast against the ideas of smooth, generated work that increasingly defines art made with AI.

It's a nod to the literal flicker of early film projection, turned into a metaphor for human and technological imperfection at a time when so much visual culture is moving in the opposite direction, toward polish and technical precision.

"Normally, when flickering occurs on a film set, it's considered a technical error that we try to eliminate," said Kim Mi-jo, director of this year's SIWFF trailer. "However, in an era like today where AI is widely used and heavily integrated, where smooth, perfect and fixed imagery constantly locks humans in place and demands perfection, I thought that a flicker might actually be a sign of true humanity. That was the idea I wanted to explore."

Actor Lee Yeon has been named the festival’s 12th SIWFFstar, the title given to the film festival's official ambassador, and will appear at the opening ceremony on Aug. 20. Known for roles in “D.P.” (2021) “Juvenile Justice” (2022) and “Kill Boksoon” (2023), Lee carries a personal tie to the festival: Her upcoming film “The Journey to Gyeong-ju” won the Pitch & Catch Award in 2022 through SIWFF's development program, and now returns to the festival with her as its newest ambassador.

Sarah Ishaq's "The Station" is set to open the festival, arriving in Seoul after playing in the Critics' Week competition at Cannes. It sits alongside other titles in the "New Journey" section, which gathers recent work by female directors along with films that passed through Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and Sundance earlier this year, giving Korean audiences a first look at several widely discussed festival titles, including Valeska Grisebach's "The Dreamed Adventure" and Mary Bronstein's "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" (2025).

Mary Bronstein's "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" (2025) will be screened at Seoul International Women's Film Festival (SIWFF) 2026. Courtesy of SIWFF

"These are works by directors early in their careers, and they take on subjects like human relationships, including new dynamics with AI, along with generational tension and the pull between independence and isolation, all told through distinct female perspectives and forms," programmer Song Hyo-jung said.

Retrospective programming offers a lot of fun themes this year as well. "Mad or Bad: Rethinking the Villainess" traces decades of witches, femme fatales and body horror to look at how film has treated female power and desire as something dangerous.

A separate program, "Japanese Women's Cinema: Generations and Gazes," covers Sachi Hamano, Satoko Yokohama, Yui Kiyohara and Son Myeong-ah, filmmakers with little in common stylistically, grouped together on purpose to push back on the idea that Japanese women's filmmaking is one single tradition.

The program “Korean Panorama, Here & Now” brings together female directors' work and female-centered stories made in Korea, mixing new releases with a restored classic, across documentary, fiction, essay film and animation. A total of 17 titles will be screened, including "Dear You, Unrelated" (2025), which reimagines the lost ending of the 1955 film "The Widow," directed by Korea's first woman director, Park Nam-ok, and will be shown alongside the original.

"Dear You, Unrelated" (2025) will be screened at Seoul International Women's Film Festival (SIWFF) 2026. Courtesy of SIWFF

"This year, we explore how society and life are being reshaped by technological developments in an era where digital tools and AI have become part of everyday reality," programmer Son Si-nae said.

A retrospective will also honor actor and producer Kim Ji-mee, who died in December 2025 at age 85. Kim debuted in Kim Ki-young's "Twilight Train" in 1957 and built a career across roughly 700 films during the golden age of Korean cinema.

A companion program will revisit the women's film collectives of the 1980s and 1990s, the activist, low-budget scene that operated largely outside the mainstream Kim's generation worked in, but which left its own mark on Korean film culture.

SIWFF, founded in 1997, has spent nearly three decades recognizing female filmmakers, backing their work and bringing in films from around the world that are centered on women's lives. This year's lineup adds to that history, with a slate that ranges from experimental shorts to century-spanning retrospectives, all built around the idea of celebrating the women who shape the industry of film.

Visit siwff.or.kr for more information.

Justin Kyle is a writer, photographer and content creator based in Seoul who covers Korean cinema, culture and travel. His YouTube channel, The Seoul Scene, provides travel guides for South Korea.