Hong Sangsoo's New Film 'Top' Invited to San Sebastian Film Festival

Competition Category Added... Also Screened at Toronto International Film Festival

Director Hong Sangsoo's twenty-eighth film, 'Top (Walk up),' has been invited to the San Sebasti?n International Film Festival, which will be held on the 16th of next month (local time).

According to the overseas distributor Finecut on the 3rd, 'Top' will compete for the Golden Shell, the highest award in the competition section, against about twenty other films. This film festival, held in the northern Spanish resort city of San Sebasti?n, boasts the greatest history and influence in the Spanish-speaking world. Director Hong received the Silver Shell for Best Director in 2016 for 'Yourself and Yours' and a Special Mention in 2020 for 'The Woman Who Ran.'

'Top' has also been invited to the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens on the 8th of next month. This marks the twelfth time a film by Director Hong has been featured in Toronto. Giona A. Nazzaro, the senior programmer of the Toronto Film Festival, commented, "He returns to the spaces and characters he has familiarly created. A melancholic softness fills the screen along with humanity, accompanied by the familiar landscapes of Hong Sangsoo's films and endless conversations over several glasses of wine."

'Top' was filmed last fall in a building in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul. The cast includes Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Hye-young, Jo Yoon-hee, Park Mi-so, Song Sun-mi, and Shin Seok-ho. Kim Min-hee, Director Hong's partner, served as the production manager. The film is scheduled to be released in the second half of this year.