KOREAN CULTURAL CENTRE UK ANNOUNCES 

LONDON KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL 2026 

Opening Gala: THE JOURNEY TO GYEONG-JU

Closing Gala: TRISTES TROPIQUES

Special Screening: POSSIBLE LOVE

(London, 6th October) The 21st edition of London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) will run from 2 November to 16 November across BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). Organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) and with the generous support of the Korean Film Council, the festival enters its third decade of celebrating Korean cinema in the UK.

This year’s festival opens with the UK premiere of Kim Mi-jo’s The Journey to Gyeong-ju (2025), a star-studded crime drama with grieving matriarch Ok-sil (Parasite’s Lee Jung-eun) and her three daughters (Gong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam, Lee Yeon) embarking on a road trip to avenge the murder of the youngest family member, followed by a Q&A with director Kim and actor Lee Jung-eun. Lee will also be attending a special screening of her other new work — Pil Gam-seong’s My Daughter Is a Zombie (2025), an adventurous and heartfelt comedy adapted from Lee Yoon-chang’s hugely popular webtoon about a father caring for his zombie virus infected daughter.

For the Closing Gala, we are delighted to present the UK Premiere of Park Hoon-jung’s Tristes Tropiques (2025), alongside a Q&A with the filmmaker. Well-known for his gritty and ruthless action dramas like New World (2013) and The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion (2018), Park returns with a bloodbath triggered by the death of a kill-squad leader. The film won the Nouveau Genre Grand Prize, the top honour in the international competition at the 32nd L’Étrange Festival.

Our Special Screening strand includes a selection of the most anticipated contemporary Korean titles and offers a rare chance to see them on the big screen. This includes Lee Chang-dong’s anticipated new film Possible Love (2026), the winner of Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Lee’s relationship drama delivers a riveting portrait of class and the disparity between the have and have nots in Korean society nowadays. There will be a recorded introduction by director Lee.

We are also delighted to present a special screening of Yoon Ga-eun’s The World of Love (2025), a moving portrayal of a high school student’s life that was hailed by many critics as the best Korean new release last year, ahead of its UK and Ireland cinema release on 27 November. Another much-looked-forward-to film is Frederik Sølberg’s Hana Korea (2025), in which Kim Minha (Pachinko) delivered an astonishing performance playing a young North Korean refugee who is trying to adjust to her new life. The festival will also see the UK premiere of Once We Were Us (2025), the latest romantic drama — a remake of Rene Liu’s acclaimed Us and Them (2018) — by director Kim Do-young, whose debut feature Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (2019) was a major success.

Apart from the exciting special screenings, our Cinema Now strand showcases a wide range of newly released Korean films that cannot be missed.

Time of Cinema (2025) is a love letter to the movie theatre directed by three leading filmmakers in contemporary Korean cinema, Lee Jong-pil, Yoon Ga-eun, and Jang Kun-jae. This reflexive anthology poses questions about what movies are for and where their magic lies.

Kim Tae-kyeong’s Home A Loan (2026) is a psychological thriller about a woman who moved into an abandoned, semi-derelict building with her two children in the belief that it will soon be developed but then started to see and hear strange things that turns her into an entire different person. Another title that would satisfy a craving of gripping suspense is Yoo Jong-seok’s debut feature Be My Baby (2025), a tense tale of two not-quite sisters, both desperate and in trouble.

This year also we welcome two brilliant coming-of-age stories: Yoo Jae-wook’s punkish The Gorals (2025) is a joyous celebration of four female misfits turning its sylvan rites of passage into social allegory, while Son Kyeong-su’s The Accordion Door (2025) is story about a high-schooler who acquired a prodigious talent for writing after a mysterious incident behind an accordion door.

The cinema of the Korean diaspora has been flourishing in recent years, with successes like Minari (2020). This year, we’re delighted to host the UK premieres of two films about the diasporic experience: Korean Canadian filmmaker Jerome Yoo’s feature debut Mongrels (2024), a tripartite drama that turns the diasporic experience into dreamy magical realism; and Korean American writer-director Stephanie Ahn’s feature debut Bedford Park (2026), which centres on the encounter between two second-generation Korean Americans: New Yorker Audrey Park (Moon Choi) and New Jersey ex-wrestler Eli (Son Sukku), who met through a car accident. Ahn’s film delves into the complex issues of identity and generational trauma and won the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

Kim Hye-ok and Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy, After Yang) star in Kim Jin-yu’s elegant drama Journey There (2025). Min-jun, a young conductor searching for his birth mother, finds frequent reasons to meet Chun-hee, gradually drawing her into the life of an orphaned boy with a gift for music. Director Kim Jin-yu will attend the Q&A following the screening.

Women’s Voices is a strand dedicated to up-and-coming independent women filmmakers. Yoo Jaein’s widely lauded first feature En Route To (2025) — took home New Currents Award and Best Actor (Lee Ji-won) at Busan International Film Festival and selected by Berlin International Film Festival — will screen to UK audiences for the first time. Yoo’s sophisticated drama confronts societal blind spots around the termination of adolescent pregnancies through a gentle depiction of the friendship between two high school students.

Shin Su-won’s The Mutation (2025) follows on a journey of two strangers each haunted by their own past — Se-oh, who is of Black, mixed-race descent but feels that it is safer for him to live in society wearing a mask and So-ra, who has lived in the shadows following the death of her same-sex lover. Mad Dance Office (2026) by Cho Hyn-jin tells the story of District Office director Guk-hee (Yeom Hye-ran), who has lived her whole life without a moment of respite but finds an unexpected refuge in dance one day.

The strand also features a curated shorts programme including four exceptional new films across fiction, documentary and animation: Co-directed by Wi Eun-kyoung and Son Gwang-min, My Aunt (2026) captures tender nephew-aunt relationship; in Speak, Young Granny (2026), filmmaker Chang Seoyun documents her experience of getting diagnosed with premature menopause at the young age of 24; My Killing Erotic Video (2026) directed by Seo Saerom and Bae Issac portrays women’s desires and fears in a cheerful and witty manner; Choi Eun-soo’s Kick It (2026) follows the story of high school girl who loves soccer and wants to participate in a semi-competitive football match that is open only to male students.

The 21st London Korean Film Festival will take place 2 November – 16 November 2026.

FURTHER PROGRAMME INFORMATION:

Facebook: @theLKFF

X: @koreanfilmfest

Instagram: @london_korean_film_festival

Homepage: https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/

All talent appearances:

Kim Mi-jo (Opening Gala Film Director)

Lee Jung-eun (Opening Gala Film Actor)

Park Hoon-jung (Closing Gala Film Director)

Kim Jin-yu (Cinema Now Film Director)

For further PRESS information, please contact: kcclkff@gmail.com

About Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK)

The Korean Cultural Centre UK, opened under the aegis of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United Kingdom, aims to enhance friendship, amity, and understanding between Korea and the UK through cultural and educational activities. From the KCCUK’s central London location near Trafalgar Square, our dedicated team works to expand cultural projects, strengthen cooperation with major arts organisations and partners, and encourage cultural exchange.