KOREAN CINEMA 2 0 0 7

Korean Film Council
Korean Film Council (KOFIC) is a government-supported, self-administered
body with its primary goal in stimulating the growth and development of Korean
films through funding, research, policy development, education and professional
training. It also works to further develop global markets for Korean films and to
promote intercultural understanding through film-based exchanges.
KOFIC’s Nature & Vision
Although KOFIC receives its budget from the government, and is committed with the role
of supporting cinema by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, it still maintains a certain
measure of independence and specialization in communicating with and representing the
needs of Korea’s filmmaking community.
While the Korean film sector spends about US$ 350 million yearly in production funding,
KOFIC’s budget for 2007 comes to about US$ 34 million, but KOFIC’s role extends beyond
simply providing money for the industry, as it actively assists in developing Korean cinema
in more diverse nature that provides an open forum for all filmmakers regardless of their
background, in addition to offering an understanding of different cultures for people to look
at the world in broader terms.
The means of carrying out such roles include supports in funding, development, production,
and distribution of Korean films concerning contemporary Korean society and the people;
rationalization of the industry through research and policy-development and with programs
including nationwide computerized box office data system; technical developments
such as digital cinema, which can facilitate and broaden the accessibility of producing
and exhibiting more diverse films; extending the education on ‘cinema as an art form’ to
broader population through media centers, cinemathéques, publications and film-related
organizations; and educating and re-training human resources for the industry through
Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) and KOFIC’s other professional programs.
Internationally, KOFIC strives for diverse cultural exchange through cinema, while promoting
Korean films in overseas markets by working with film festivals and other organizations,
and through research. KOFIC also produces publications that include guidebooks and
catalogues as well as those on the state of the Korean film industry.
In addition, KOFIC is the leading figure in the establishment of Asian Film Network
(AFIN) for the purpose of promoting cultural exchanges among the countries involved
and advancing their respective film industries at the same time. Advantages of an Asian
Cinema bloc in terms of cooperation and exchange is that there is a cultural familiarity
and economic prosperity to be shared in the region, and with Korea happens to be at a
certain peak in its development, programs such as Asian Film Academy (AFA) and KAFA
Asian Scholarship Program offer selected participants from other Asian nations have the
opportunity to experience firsthand the results from experiences of trial and error and help
advance the development of other Asian film industries as well as Asian cinema bloc itself.
To give an idea of the past decade’s developments in Korea, last year, cinema admissions
for both Korean and foreign films saw a record-breaking 153.4 million tickets sold, while per
capita film attendance went up to 3.1. This is in contrast to the 40.8 million tickets sold in
1995 when the population only saw a single film per capita yearly.
In the same decade or so since contemporary Korean cinema has seen its so-called
renaissance, the number of films produced went from 64 in 1995 to 110 in 2006. Market
share for Korean films went from 20.9% to 63.8% in 2006, the highest ever since upward
trend began to show in 1996. Even with the enforcement of reduced Screen Quota that
went effective in July 1, 2006, the rise in Korean cinema is astonishing. With expanding
market size as shown by growing number of nationwide screens to 1,847, an increase of
12.1% from 2005, KOFIC is concerning itself with keeping the diversity of Korean market
for artistic and independent-oriented cinema as well.
However, the eventual goal of KOFIC is to elevate the Korean film industry to top-five rank
of the world by providing continuous assistance to the industry and its people. In order
to achieve such goal, it has set a five-year goal in five primary categories. By the end of
2011, KOFIC strives to 1) increase the size of domestic market, from 140 billion Korean
Won to 300 billion Korean won; 2) increase the world film market share from 1.6% to
3%; 3) increase the audience size for Korean cinema from 150 million to 300 million; 4)
maintain the audience share along the 50% level; and 5) increase the revenue from export
of Korean films, from 76 billion Korean Won to 300 billion Korean Won. KOFIC hopes to
achieve this goal by strengthening of Korean films’ global competitiveness, building of
production and exhibition infrastructure for art and independent films, as well as market
diversification through bilateral international exchanges. Main issues that it faces and
must solve are maintaining of diversity; securing of solid and stable production investment
environment; welfare system for film professionals, incubation of skilled professional staff
and enhancement of technical standards; expansion into overseas promotion; advancement
of balancing among regional audio-visual industry; and film policy reforms.
By achieving these goals through KOFIC’s 5 year programs, the future will be bright for
Korean films as its industry will position itself as the leading core contents industry in
today’s knowledge-based society, where it will settle in as a main service industry in Korea
by materializing its high-revenue generating value while creating diverse environment for
diversity-oriented and commercial, low-budget and blockbuster films to exist and maintain
the balance between the two. The film industry will also maintain its high competitive
nature within a domestic market while becoming the major power in global film community.
New Strategy for Korean Films
Although Korean films have shown remarkable successes during the last decade, it is
facing several newchallenges that may threaten its continuous advancement. This is mainly
due to structural problems within Korea’s film industry, with three issues that stand out.
First, generalization of large-scale production scale and wide-release distribution have
resulted in monopolizing of screen venues by a handful of blockbuster films, which in return
made it difficult for producing and exhibiting low-budget independent art films and other
diverse-natured films. Such trend is dangerously close to the failure of Hong Kong cinema
with the limited subject matter (in Hong Kong’s case, martial-arts action films,) and reliance
on star-power that gave a short-term popularity eventually losing its power.
Another major issue the industry faces is inferior labor conditions and treatments towards
field production staff, resulting in exodus of outstanding film professionals from the
industry and on-location conflicts during the field production, which work as detrimental
elements in long-term advancement of Korean films. What’s more, reduction in Screen
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