Producers Guild of Korea launches ‘hotline' to aid international co-productions

The Producers Guild of Korea (PGK) launched an International Co-production Hotline at the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) in Busan on Sunday (October 6), to aid collaboration between producers in Korea and overseas.

The initiative is aimed at international producers seeking Korean co-production, who will be able to submit a one-page proposal about their project. It will then be distributed to 250 Korean producers. Interested parties will have up to a week to respond directly to the proposal.

“There were many foreign producers who wanted to coproduce with Korea, but there was no practical channel for them to do so,” said PGK president Lee Dong‑ha of the new initiative. “We hope that more international co-production projects will be created through the hotline.”

PGK plans to open the hotline for invitations by the end of the year in a beta-test phase before seeking further legal and funding support from the Korean Film Council (Kofic) to develop it further.

PGK’s International Co-Production Showcase, staged at ACFM’s new Producer Hub, also saw the guild sign two memorandums of understanding with Asosiasi Produser Film Indonesia, an Indonesian film producers’ association, and the Hong Kong Movie Production Executives Association Committee.

The event also placed the spotlight on two international co-productions. Yoo Jae-sun’s Sleep will have a US remake to be co-produced by Kim Tae-wan, CEO of Lewis Pictures. The original screened in Cannes and starred the late Lee San-kyun. Also in the works is Dreams Of You, a Korea-Vietnam co-production produced by Lee Jung-se of Jerrygood Company, and starring Lee Kwang-soo and Hoang Ho.

This story originally appeared on our sister site Screen.

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