Toronto (Canada), September 10 (EFE).- The premiere this Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) of “Concrete Utopia”, a social critique centered on an earthquake that reduces Seoul to ruins, marks the beginning of the way to the Oscars for the film directed by South Korean Um Tae-hwa.

The film stars three of South Korea’s most popular actors: Lee Byung-hun (“Inside Men” and “Squid Game”), Park Bo-young (“Scandal Makers” and “On Your Wedding Day”) and Park Seo-jun (“The Chronicles of Evil” and “Parasite”).

Um Tae-hwa, who previously directed “Battle of the Internet Trolls” (2013) and “Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned” (2016), sets the action in a building that is the only building that miraculously remained in place. after an earthquake devastates Seoul.

The building becomes a magnet that attracts survivors of the tragedy until conflict breaks out when the residents decide to evict all the new arrivals.

Its inclusion in the Toronto Film Festival’s Gala lineup is no coincidence, since the Canadian show is considered one of the best launching platforms for films that want to compete for an Oscar.

And this year, the South Korean Film Council unanimously voted that “Concrete Utopoia” would be the South Korean film that aspires to compete at the next edition of the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category.

Tae-hwa’s film is not the only South Korean feature film present at the 48th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened on September 7 and closes on the 17th.

TIFF scheduled the screening of four more South Korean films, included a discussion with Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-jun and will host a forum with four South Korean directors and a producer on the Asian country’s diaspora cinema .

For years, the Toronto Film Festival has been interested in the creative impulse coming from South Korea, partly because the Canadian exhibition prides itself on anticipating the trends that will dominate the world of cinema and partly because of the The large South Korean community lives in the main Canadian city.

The international growth of South Korean production has been accompanied by the strength of the economy of a country which, a little over 60 years ago, was one of the poorest in the world and which today has today has global potential.

The consecration of South Korean cinema came when Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or for the first time at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and shortly after won four Oscars at the Cinema Academy ceremony of 2020, making history by becoming the first film not shot in English to win Best Picture.

Two years later, the success of the Netflix series “Squid Game” certifies the international value of South Korean multimedia productions.

Today, South Korea wants to maintain its momentum with “Concrete Utopia” and this Sunday it will be the protagonist of a day in Toronto also marked by the presentation of one of the Tribute awards to the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in recognition of his career.

In addition to Almodóvar, who presented his latest film at the festival on Saturday, the English-language short film “Strange Way of Life”, directed by Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, TIFF will also reward director Spike Lee and actress Patricia Arquette, among others .

Also on the agenda for this Sunday are the premiere of the Spanish film “O Corno”, the second film by director Jaione Camborda, and the Canadian film “Solo”, by Quebecer Sophie Dupuis.

Camborda’s film is set in Galicia in the 1970s, was filmed in Galician and Portuguese in the regions of Arousa and Baixo Miño (Pontevedra) and Alto Minho (Portugal) and stars Janet Novás, Carla Rivas, Siobhan Fernandes, Nuria Lestegás, Julia Gómez and Diego Anido.

Julius Caesar Rivas