Korea’s ‘Miracle’ Wins Best Film Prize at Udine’s Asian Festival

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Miracle: Letters to the President,” directed by Lee Jang-hoon, was Saturday named as the best film winner at the Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine, following an audience poll.

The South Korean-made film was described by festival organizers as “a sweet-natured hymn to the power of dreams.” Second and third places belonged to Chinese-produced pictures Li Ruijun’s “Return to Dust” and Xing Wenxiong’s “To Cool to Kill,” respectively.

The festival’s Black Dragon season ticket holders voted for “Return to Dust,” while users of the MYmovies service Korea’s “Kingmaker” by Byun Sung-hyun.The jurors for the best debut film awarded the festival’s White Mulberry award to “Too Cool to Kill.” The Mulberry Award for best screenplay Jojo Hideo’s “Love Nonetheless.”  If the order of the prizes seemed like a return to pre-COVID normality, so too did the operation of the event, Udine’s 24th.

After a wholly online edition in 2020 and a hybrid event in 2021 the 2022 edition was largely operated as a conventional in-person event, which welcomed over 40,000 human spectators.