Kim Wins Best Director Award in Spanish Film Fest

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Kim Jee-woon, director of Korean blockbuster film "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", was awarded Best Director at the 41st Sitges International Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain, which closed on Oct. 12.

Kim's film also won the award for Best Special Effects. The "oriental Western" featuring exciting horseback races and train rides, is a revisionist western set in 1930s Manchuria, starring top actors Lee Byung-hun, Song Kang-ho and Jung Woo-sung.

Another Korean movie, "The Chaser" directed by Na Hong-jin grabbed the Orient Express Award, or best Asian production motion picture. The Korean thriller is a suspenseful story of a serial murder starring actors Ha Jung-woo and Kim Yun-seok.

The film festival's Best Motion Picture went to "Surveillance" by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch.

The film festival, created in 1968, is one of the major fantasy film festivals in the world.

Last year, Korean actress Lee Young-ae starring in "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" directed by Park Chan-wook won the award for Best Actress in 2005 and "The Host" directed by Bong Joon-ho grabbed the Orient Express Award in 2006.

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