[Interview] Films That Question Our Attitudes Jury Chair of the “No Problem Film Festival,” Director Ahn Jae-huun

[Interview] Films That Question Our Attitudes Jury Chair of the “No Problem Film Festival,” Director Ahn Jae-huun By Kim So-mi | Photo by Oh Gye-ok 2025-11-28 Introduced at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2011 with Green Days, which opened new possibilities for Korean feature-length animation, Director Ahn Jae-huun went on to translate Korean literature into the language of animation through works such as Sonagi and When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom. With The Shaman Sorceress, which absorbed the landscape of Korean shamanism, he once again made a leap at Annecy. These days, as he accelerates toward the completion of his new feature Gill, based on the original novel by Gu Byeong-mo, Ahn temporarily stepped away from his own work and returned to the seat of an ardent viewer through the selected films of the No Problem Film Festival. As Jury Chair, he visited Cine21 just before the awards ceremony. Here, we share the questions raised by the 2025 award-winning films—praised for presenting “diverse perspectives on care grounded in broad social awareness”—and the reflections Director Ahn arrived at through the judging process. Q. I heard you usually don’t serve on film juries. In particular, I avoid judging animation. I’d rather be someone who is judged than someone who judges. I never take part in jury panels for government institutions. But if a festival is more like a celebration than a competition that selects a “first place,” then I consider it when the opportunity arises. Q. How did you come to learn about the No Problem Film Festival? Actor Kwon Oh-jung strongly encouraged me and guided me to it. At our first meeting, the atmosphere of the festival organizers felt like that of a small village community. I’m actually quite good at saying no, so I don’t automatically accept just because I attend a meeting—but this time, the feeling was good. Q. A total of 11 works were selected across both the Short-form and Short Film sections. Which ones stood out to you? In the Short-form section, Siblings’ Cart left a strong impression. It is an animation depicting orphaned siblings who collect and sell scrap. The emotional power unique to clay animation was striking. The imperfect lines drawn carefully by human hands carried a moving beauty of attitude that felt pure and sincere. In the Short Film section, Muguk lingered with me. As I grow older, I find myself less drawn to films that forcibly make me forget something. Rather than movies that make my palms sweat or make me lose track of time, I now look for works that prompt me to consider my neighbors in the world I live in and reflect on my own attitude toward life. Muguk, which deals with the issue of North Korean defectors, asks how far Korean society is willing to embrace minorities. I also appreciated the restrained storytelling that avoided heroic exaggeration and treated both characters and themes with quiet sobriety. One of the great virtues of short films is that they do not show everything outright but instead invite the audience to think—and Muguk embodied that virtue well. Beyond these, many works addressing themes such as family, care labor, children’s rights, and parenting environments were meaningfully selected. Q. Was this your first time judging short-form content? Yes, and honestly it was intimidating. When people talk about short-form works, they often associate them with advertising or sensational content. So before beginning the evaluation, I spent considerable time establishing my own viewing attitude and criteria—such as how to approach the works fairly given their short running times, and whether it was better to watch them all evenly in succession and judge by first impression. Q. Were there also impactful films that did not receive awards? Yes, there was a work dealing with apartment-to-apartment noise disputes. It portrayed moments where the distinction between perpetrator and victim becomes ambiguous, and it handled neighborly misunderstanding in an unexpected and inventive way. Q. The festival focuses on various social issues. How did your impression of the festival’s name change from before to after the judging? It prompted a reflective counter-question. What does it really mean for there to be “no problem”? Even the title itself feels like a question being posed—very much in the spirit of a film festival. Q. Was there a theme you personally became more interested in through this experience? It connects to thoughts I’ve been having in my own life. As I approach my sixties, I’ve been strongly thinking that I want to devote myself fully to animation until then, and afterward find a second profession. I hope it will be something modest but genuinely useful to society. Watching the festival selections made me realize that there are many ways I could still contribute to the world. People often say that good animation heals the heart. Now I find myself wanting to go beyond film and do something that has practical, tangible effects in real life—something that truly brushes the dust off someone’s life. Q. Many are eagerly awaiting your new feature Gill. Could you tell us about it? It is an animation based on the original novel by Gu Byeong-mo. I worked on it with the hope that audiences would feel compelled to go to the theater and see it for themselves. As we live our lives, we often want to hide the wounds on our bodies. When those wounds accumulate, there comes a point when you feel as though you might die from them. Yet at some moment, you may realize that all those wounds were actually the gills that allowed you to breathe. The staff who worked with me were the first to choose and recommend this project, and in retrospect I feel deeply grateful for that. One especially moving moment was when our entire production team stood together on stage at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The festival organizers seemed surprised to see so many staff members attending together. Carrying this energy forward, we are carefully refining the film until the very end, with plans to present it around the middle or latter half of next year. Although Korean animation has not yet received widespread attention, the beautiful things happening within our community are clear and vivid. I sincerely hope that this beauty will reach as many people as possible—and that Gill will become a successful, widely embraced animated film.