We present the winners of the Seoul International Eco Film Festival which took place from June 1 – 7, 2023 in Seoul, Korea

Korean Competition Award

Best Feature Film

The Saemangeum land reclamation project forced HWANG Yun to stop her documentary on mud flats in 2006. 10 years later, she moves to Gunsan near Saemangeum and meets a 2 decade-old civilian ecological research group there and realizes that the seawalls haven’t destroyed many occupants of the mud flats. This a moving film that captures the colorful array of life forms and constantly changing mud flat landscapes complimented by a heartfelt and poised narration. The breathtaking images that takes one away from the regrettable reality of a disappearing nature is enough to make this film a ‘must see’. (SIEFF 2023)

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Special Audience Jury Award

Director WANG Mincheol, who previously captured the daily lives of the animals in Cheongju Zoo in his film Garden, Zoological, now turns his camera to the people who are tirelessly working to establish a wildlife shelter called “Sanctuary” to rescue and provide lifelong care for animals in need due to injuries or loss of their mother. The only way to save animals that cannot return to the wild due to reasons such as injury, attachment to humans, or other reasons, without euthanizing them, is to create a sanctuary. The film vividly captures the activities of a range of individuals such as zookeepers, veterinarians, and rescue workers, while providing a multifaceted perspective on animal rights issues. (SIEFF 2023)

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Excellence Prize

Special Mention

A mermaid is stranded at a Jeju Island seashore when the ebb and flow cycle gets warped from global warming. Villagers find the mermaid who looks nothing like what humans always imagined. Five men including the village head, a raw fish diner owner, politician, YouTuber and university researcher each approach the mermaid with their own agenda. Will the mermaid be able to escape this place? (SIEFF 2023)

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International Competition Awards

Best Feature Film

This film set in a Portuguese rural area is an anthem to land and labor. Music, dialogue and explanations are replaced by sounds of rain, animals, shovels and hoes evening the ground. And as the earth, plants and animals fill the screen, male and female farmers occasionally enter, but almost never walk into the center. Repetitive motions and sounds are absorbed by nature’s rhythms and humans are depicted only as pieces of it. The organic montages created through detailed examination offers a meditative experience that expresses the deep connection between humans and nature. (SIEFF 2023)

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Special Mention

This is a feature-length documentary by Pia RÖNICKE, who was invited to the 2022 Busan Biennale to present a media art piece on “forests.” Through the history of Swedish forests, the film presents a very philosophical and tantalizing portrayal of the relationship between humans and organisms living in the forest. The film also touches on the broad historical representation of forest exploitation since the start of World War II. (SIEFF 2023)

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Special Jury Award

A sudden drought hits the highlands of Bolivia. An elderly couple desperately awaits rain as they struggle to survive in the devastated village. Is their conviction enough for them to stay? The filmmaker hints through the couple’s daily routines that climate crisis will change the environment as well as destroy the local way of living and native culture. The cinematographer and filmmaker with a background in photography captures trivial gestures, gazes and moments of silence to instill rich layers of emotion into a simple narrative. Especially the magnificent highland landscapes are enough to almost overpower the film’s grim narrative. (SIEFF 2023)

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Audience’s Choice

Thousands of people in France join the nuclear industry each year. Some move from one nuclear power plant to another, enduring the dangers of radiation to make ends meet as cleaners. And to make this nomadic life easier, they choose to live in caravans. The film juxtaposes the taxing lives of three nomadic laborers with the future of the nuclear industry that is a means for their livelihood. (SIEFF 2023)

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