The film ‘What Does Nature Say To You’, in which director Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee, who recently announced their pregnancy and are an extramarital affair couple for 9 years, collaborated, has advanced to the competition category of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. This is the 9th time that director Hong has been invited to the Berlin International Film Festival, and attention is focused on whether this film will be his 6th win.

On the afternoon of the 21st (Korean time), the Berlin International Film Festival announced the films to be screened at the festival opening on the 13th of next month, and director Hong Sang-soo‘s new film ‘What Does Nature Say To You’ was named as the film invited to the competition category. ‘What Does Nature Say To You?’, which depicts what happens when a young woman takes her boyfriend to his family, is director Hong’s 33rd feature-length film and the 16th collaboration between director Hong and Kim Min-hee, who have admitted to having an affair since 2017. In addition to Kim Min-hee, Ha Sung-kook, Kwon Hae-hyo, and Jo Yoon-hee also star.

Director Hong and Kim Min-hee have mostly accompanied each other when invited to overseas film festivals for their collaborative works, so there is keen interest in whether the two, who recently shocked everyone with the news of their pregnancy, will appear together at this film festival.
Since director Hong is a ‘regular customer of Berlin’,’ and is endlessly trusted by the Berlin International Film Festival, the chances of this film winning an award are also high. Director Hong has been invited to the Berlin International Film Festival eight times, the most for a Korean director. Since being first invited to the competition section with ‘Day and Night’, he has been listed in the competition section seven times up until last year, and ‘In the Water’, which was invited in 2023, was introduced in the Encounter section rather than the competition section.

He also holds the record for the most awards among domestic directors. He won the Best Director (Silver Bear) and Best Screenplay (Silver Bear) for ‘The Woman Who Ran’ in 2020 and ‘Introduction’ in 2021, respectively, and won the Jury Grand Prize (Silver Bear) for ‘The Novelist‘s Film’ in 2022 and ‘A Traveler’s Needs’ last year. In particular, he gave the Best Actress Award (Silver Bear) to Kim Min-hee, who starred in ‘On the Beach at Night Alone’ in 2017. Kim Min-hee has only appeared in director Hong‘s films since admitting to having an affair with him.

Meanwhile, the Berlin International Film Festival, which has been held since 1951, is considered one of the world’s top three film festivals along with Cannes and Venice. This year‘s festival will be held for ten days from February 13 to 23.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.