Director Joung Yu-mi’s short animated film Glasses has been selected for competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. It is the only South Korean film invited to the prestigious event this year.
Glasses will be part of the Critics’ Week section, which highlights emerging voices in global cinema. The 15-minute animation tells the story of Yu-jin, who, after breaking her glasses, visits an optician. During her eye exam, she imagines a house in a field and finds herself inside, where she meets three shadowy versions of herself. Through a process of reconciliation, she gains a new perspective on life, symbolized by a new pair of glasses. The film is silent, with no dialogue.
Director Joung explained that the film represents the inner child we all carry within us. “This inner child stays with us as a shadow, often forgotten, but reappears in the darker moments of our lives,” she said in a statement issued by the Bucheon International Animation Festival (BIAF), which supported the production. The film portrays the protagonist’s journey of confronting and reconciling with these “shadows,” symbolizing unresolved emotions, wounds, and complexes.
Glasses is the first Korean film to be invited to Cannes this year. However, no Korean films were selected for the main competition or other noncompetitive sections, marking the first absence of Korean films at Cannes in 26 years. Despite several submissions, including films like The Ugly by Yeon Sang-ho, The Journey to Gyeongju by Kim Mi-jo, and Omniscient Reader by Kim Byung-woo, none were selected. Notably, Park Chan-wook’s anticipated film No Other Choice was not submitted due to incomplete postproduction.
The 78th Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 13 to 24 in Cannes, France.
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