London Korean Film Festival

The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF), organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) and supported by the Korean Film Council, will return from 5 November to 18 November taking place at BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, and ICA London.

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, LKFF is one of the longest running film festivals dedicated to Korean cinema outside the country itself. Featuring the world premiere of Kim Jong-kwan’s Frosted Window as the opening film and Woo Min-ho’s Harbin as the closing film, this milestone edition will honour the vibrant present and rich history of Korean filmmaking with its signature strands — Cinema Now, Women’s Voices, and a Special Screening.

This year will also see the launch of the LKFF Audience Award, giving festival-goers the chance to vote for their favourite film and play a part in shaping this special anniversary celebration.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Frosted Window (2025), an anthology film that gives an honest portrayal of the human condition through three episodes, each set in a different season, in the Seochon neighbourhood of Seoul’s Jongno District. Frosted Window is directed by the master of inventive short narratives Kim Jong-kwan (Come, Closer (2010), The Table (2016) and Shades of the Heart (2021)) and serves as a  Rohmer-esque love letter to Seochon. Director Kim Jong-kwan and actor Yeon Woo-jin will be joining the festival for a special post-screening Q&A.

The festival will close with Inside Men (2015)director Woo Min-ho’s latest feature Harbin (2024), a breathtaking historical drama about Korean Independence fighter, Ahn Jung-geun, lensed by Parasite cinematographer Hong Kyeong-pyo and scored by longtime Park Chan-wook collaborator, Cho Young-wuk. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year and stars Hyun Bin, Park Jeong-min, Jo Woo-jin and Jeon Yeo-been.

Setting the celebratory tone of this year’s edition will be a Special Screening of Hi-Five (2025), a light-hearted super-hero comedy by Kang Hyoung-chul, the creator of numerous blockbusters including Sunny (2011) and Scandal Makers (2008).

Cinema Now brings a selection of new releases across a range of genres, showcasing the vitality and innovation of Korea’s contemporary filmmaking. Director Shin Jea-min’s Commission (2024) is a bold and sophisticated psychodrama that reimagines the creative process of the booming webtoon industry as the framework for a gripping serial killer thriller, where mysteries unfold around an aspiring webtoon artist.

Jang Man-min’s debut feature Silver Apricot (2024) centres on a vampire webtoon creator who returns to her seaside hometown of Donghae City, where she must confront the fraught dynamics of her estranged family.

Namkoong Sun’s Time to Be Strong (2024) turns to the flipside of the glamorous K-pop kingdom — a story about three veteran idols embarking on a belated ‘school trip’ to Jeju Island in the hope of recovering and rediscovering their lost youth.

The Informant (2024), directed by Kim Seok, is an action comedy that follows the chaotic duo of an inept cop and an ace informant as they navigate a swamp of deceit and distrust, featuring an astounding lead performance by Squid Game (2021-2025)’s actor Heo Sung-tae.

The Land of Morning Calm (2024) begins with the disappearance of a young local fisherman, sending ripples through a bleak, small seaside town. Park Ri-woong’s melancholic portrait of an ageing community garnered three awards at the 29th Busan International Film Festival.

Another film festival acclaimed gem is Park Joon-ho’s 3670 (2025), winner of four awards at the 26th Jeonju International Film Festival that tracks a defector exploring his identity and sexuality in Seoul. Starring K-pop star Kwon Yu-ri (Girls’ Generation), Somebody (2025)is a psychological thriller that dives into the dark side of a convoluted mother-daughter relationship.

Women’s Voices, curated by programmer Son Si-nae from the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, champions up-and-coming independent filmmakers.

Red Nails (2025) by Hwang Seul-gi presents a young woman weighed down by debt and the arrival of her estranged mother, who suffers from dementia. Caught between survival and responsibility, the two struggle to redefine what family means in the face of hardship.

In Bang Mi-ri’s SAVE (2025), just a day before a high schooler is set to leave her orphanage, a stranger who claims to have saved her life in the past suddenly reappears asking for help; what begins with suspicion unfolds into an unexpected bond, as the film explores resilience and the unconventional ways women carve out survival in a cruel world.

The Meryl Streep Project (2024) documents director Park Hyo-sun’s journey to meet her hero, Meryl Streep, who inspires her to participate in feminist activism in Korea. The film captures important discussions around the political awakening amongst young women in the country.

In collaboration with the Korean Film Archive, this year’s edition also presents a special programme to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation.

Dramas of Resistance: The 80th Anniversary of Liberation, curated by programmer Park Se-ho, highlights films that honour the spirit of strength and resilience in the movement.

The programme features two films from the ‘Manchurian Western’ genre, which blends elements of the ‘Spaghetti Western’ to explore stories set in Manchuria during the colonial era. Auteur Lee Man-hee’s Break Up the Chain (1971), a seminal work of the genre, is an epic about three men who chase after a Buddha statue that not only holds monetary value but also bears a list of operatives working for the resistance movement; and Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), which revisits the trio-and-treasure-hunt trope with renowned actors Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung.

The programme also includes two biopics that foreground prominent figures in Korean liberation: Youn JK’s Hero (2022), a screen adaptation of the eponymous musical that chronicles the life of revolutionary Ahn Jung-geun, and Lee Joon-ik’s Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016), which depicts the story of celebrated poet Yoon Dong-ju.

Also based on a real-life story, Kim Hyun-seok’s YMCA Baseball Team (2002) offers a comedic interpretation of the legendary Hwangseong YMCA baseball team—the first baseball team in Korea.

Seunghye Sun, Director, Korean Cultural Centre UK mentions “As we celebrate the London Korean Film Festival, I am reminded of a phrase that guides my reflections on Korean aesthetics: all that is called is love. At its heart, cinema embodies this truth by offering us not only stories but a deeper understanding of the wide spectrum of the human condition. From tender lyricism to profound historical narratives, Korean film reveals how love, in its many forms, binds us to one another and to the world we share.”

The 20th London Korean Film Festival will take place 5 November – 18 November 2025.