EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF) is hosted by EBS, a national public television featuring educational and cultural programs in Korea. EIDF is one and only documentary festival through both screening and broadcasting at the same time. As Asia’s prestigious documentary festival, EIDF began in 2004 and highlighted on the documentary films which were focused on Asia or were made in Asia. However, EIDF has extended the interest to a variety of countries from around the world since 2004. Along with TV show case of outstanding non-fiction films on EBS TV channel including documentaries which are nominated at the Competitive Section, EIDF has many special events such as public screening, forums, director’s classes and exhibitions during the week of festival.
EIDF selects today’s best documentaries that look at the past, the present and the future of the world in depth and provides an opportunity for filmmakers to communicate with the audience through their works expressing diverse cultures and raising questions.
Festival Choice Grand Prix (USD 10,000) : Awarded to the most complete and elaborate documentary among the twelve nominees in the EIDF main competition
Edu Choice Grand Prix (USD 10,000) : Awarded to the best documentary among the nominees in the EIDF 2012 main competition which provides refreshing insights for education as well
Spirit Award (USD 7,000) : Awarded to the documentary among the twelve nominees for the EIDF main competition that best reveals the director's artistic spirit and genuine message according to the theme of each year's EIDF
Special Jury Award (USD 5,000) : Awarded to the documentary among the twelve nominees for the EIDF main competition that shows outstanding approach in experimentation and form
UNICEF Special Award (USD 5,000) : Among the existing entries, awarded to the films which contain children related contents or have hopeful messages for children
Audience Award (USD 3,000) : Awarded to the documentary among the twelve nominees for the EIDF main competition that receives the most votes over the online and offline voting system
Master's Class : The Master's Class offers special events for general audiences who have genuine interest in documentaries and documentary makers. The audience will be able to have a glimpse into the present state of documentary through filmmakers' and/or producers' own voices.
Master's Class of EIDF 2009 : Kaori Sakagami (Out of Frame: Search for Alternatives through Documentary Filmmaking), Thom Andersen (Get out of the Media) & Yves Jeanneau (Sunny or Cloudy?: International Co-Production)
Director's Class : In the Director's Class, directors of Festival Choice will share their passion, experience and knowledge with festival participants, who will be able to obtain practical know-hows such as documentary production and filmmaking.
Director's Class of EIDF 2009 : Mary Katzke & Nati Baratz (Character Driven Documentary Storytelling), Karen Michael (Documentary of the Multiplatform Era), Andrei Dascalescu (Emerging Film Director), Sally Gutierrez Dewar (Micro-narratives, Gender and How We Document) & Stelios Koul (Finctional Documentary)
Special Class : EIDF provides the special event of award-winning documentary makers with Korean participants from internationally known documentary film festivals such as HOTDOC and IDFA.
Special Class of EIDF 2009 : Simon El Habre, Award-winner of Best Documentary at HOTDOCs 2009 (For International Competence in Documentary-making: The Interaction of Structure and Editing)
EIDF has launched EIDF Documentary Fund (EDF) assisting projects to develop and supply documentary contents for better quality. EDF has attracted many documentary directors and reinforced the works of documentaries in development. EDF announced that the Best Choice of EIDF 2009 is The Hazy Journey of the Illuminating Tree directed by Yi Seung Jun, and the winner will gain the financial support of KRW 30,000,000. Moreover, the winner's final production will be shown on the 7th EIDF in 2010.
