Shin Su-won (born 1967) is a South Korean

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. Shin wrote and directed ''Passerby #3'' (2010), ''

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

'' (2013) and ''

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

'' (2015). Her short film ''Circle Line'' won the Canal+ Prize for Best Short Film at the

2012 Cannes Film Festival The 65th Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Austrian filmma ...

Early life

Shin Su-won studied

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

education at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

, and after graduating, she worked as a middle school teacher in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

for 10 years, mostly teaching social studies subjects such as geography, world history and political economy. During this time, she also wrote two books focused on teens. Then in 2010, she enrolled at

Korea National University of Arts Korea National University of Arts () is a national university in Seoul, South Korea. Korea National University of Arts was established in 1993 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as the only national university of arts with an aim to ...

initially because she wanted to become a novelist. But Shin fell in love with the cinema and filmmaking, and changed her major to screenwriting. At the age of 34, she decided to quit her teaching job and become a film director.

Career

Using from her own

pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...

, Shin had begun working on her

feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...

directorial debut since 2007. The self-produced

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

''Passerby #3'', released in 2010, was derived from her own experiences as a thirty-something woman trying break into the industry and become a filmmaker. ''Passerby #3'' won the JJ-Star Award at the 11th

Jeonju International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, ) is an Asian film festival based in South Korea. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival seeking to introduce independent and experimental films to the general public and focusing ...

and the Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film award at the 23rd

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

. Her next project was the

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

''Circle Line'', which tells the story of a middle-aged man killing time on a Seoul subway train as he tries to keep from his family the fact that he was recently

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization ...

. ''Circle Line'' was invited to participate in the 65th Cannes Film Festival and won the Canal+ Prize for best short film. It screened in theaters as part of the four-film omnibus ''Modern Family''. ''

'', Shin's sophomore feature, was a 2012 thriller that explores the competitive nature of the Korean education system. It premiered at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, and Shin received a special mention at the Generation 14plus Section of the

63rd Berlin International Film Festival The 63rd annual Berlin International Film Festival took place in Berlin, Germany, between 7 and 17 February 2013. Chinese film director Wong Kar-wai was announced as the president of the jury and his film '' The Grandmaster'' was the opening fil ...

. In 2015, her third feature ''

'', about a nurse's aide trying to secure an

organ donation Organ donation is the process when a person authorizes an organ (anatomy), organ of their own to be removed and organ transplantation, transplanted to another person, #Legislation and global perspectives, legally, either by consent while the d ...

, was invited to screen in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Her next film, '' Glass Garden'', is a

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

, which was released in 2017. Her fourth feature film, ''Light for the Youth'', is a drama film about the social issues of the youth such as those who are suffering from poor working conditions in South Korea. The film was partly inspired by the news of a 20-year old worker who was hit and killed by a train while working alone to fix a door at

Guui station Guui Station () is a station on the Seoul Subway Line 2 Seoul Subway Line 2 (), also known as the Circle Line, is a orbital (metro), circular line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The line running clockwise is called the "inner circle line" ...

in eastern

. The film's setting is a call center, which was also inspired by an incident in 2017 where a 19-year-old South Korean intern working at a call center committed suicide due to being overworked. Shin shared that working 10 years as a middle school teacher helped her empathize with the younger generation. In 2022, she wrote and directed '' Hommage'', a film about a middle-aged film director who had fallen in a slump due to box office failures and crosses the past and the present after receiving a project to restore a film by a fictional first-generation Korean female director who was active in the 1960s. It was invited to the International Competition section at the 34th

where it had its world premiere on October 31, 2021. The film also won the Jury Award, the highest award at the 20th Florence Korean Film Festival.

Filmography

*''Sweeter Than Candy'' (

, 2002) -

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

*''Shave'' (

, 2003) - director, screenwriter,

music director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

*''Home Sweet Home'' (

, 2004) - co-screenwriter *''Passerby #3'' (2010) - director, screenwriter, producer *''Circle Line'' (

, 2012) - director, screenwriter *''

'' (2013) - director, screenwriter *''

'' (2015) - director, screenwriter *'' Glass Garden'' (2017) - director, screenwriter *''Light for the Youth' (2020)'' - director, screenwriter *'' Hommage'' (2022) - director, screenwriter

Awards

*2010 11th Women in Film Korea Awards: Best Female Director/Screenwriter of the Year (''Passerby #3'') *2012 65th Cannes Film Festival: Canal+ Prize for Best Short Film (''Circle Line'') *2013

: Special Mention from Youth Jury Generation 14plus (''

'') *2016 3rd Wildflower Film Awards: Best Director (Narrative Films) (''

'')

Honours

* Jury member at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival for its competition section 'Kim Jiseok Award'.

References

External links

Shin Su-won
at Korean Film Biz Zone * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shin, Su-won South Korean film directors South Korean women film directors South Korean screenwriters 1967 births Living people