Director Yoon Dae-won’s 'Maemi' Ranks 2nd in Cannes International Film Festival Student Competition

The Only Korean Award Winner at This Year's Cannes International Film Festival

Director Yoon Dae-won's short film "Maemi" won 2nd place in the student competition category at the Cannes International Film Festival. On the 15th (local time), Director Yoon was announced as the 2nd place winner at the "Cinefoundation" awards ceremony held at the Palais des Festivals' Bu?uel Theater and received a prize of 11,250 euros (approximately 15 million KRW). Cinefoundation is an official invitation program established in 1998. It screens 15 to 20 student films from around the world and selects three outstanding works. This year, 1,835 entries were submitted from 490 film schools worldwide.

"Maemi" is a 17-minute film that explores gender identity through a transgender person working on Sowol-gil in Namsan, Seoul. Director Yoon created it as his graduation project for the Film Department at the Korea National University of Arts' School of Film, TV & Multimedia. Previous Korean works awarded at Cinefoundation include Director Hong Sung-hoon's "Meeting" (2006, 3rd place), Director Park Jae-ok's "Stop" (2008, 3rd place), Director Cho Sung-hee's "House of Hummingbird" (2009, 3rd place), and Director Son Tae-gyeom's "Night Flight" (2011, 3rd place).

Director Yoon enrolled at the Korea National University of Arts in 2013 as a film student. In 2010, while attending the Animation Department at Gyeonggi Arts High School, he gained recognition by winning the grand prize in the youth category at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Canada.