There are just too many film festivals in Korea. Pusan, Puchon, Jeonju, Gwangju, Chungmuro, Jechoen... the list goes on. For movie lovers, it's great news. You get to see so many different movies from all over the world. Most of them, probably you'd never be able to see anywhere else.

The abundance of festivals creates a problem. Too many unqualified programmers are programming the festivals. As a result, so many of them are disappointing. A festival's success depends on the programming. Pucheon, despite its disadvantage in terms of location (the city kind of sucks), has blossomed into a nice genre festival because its selection of films is pretty good.

But from an international filmmaker's POV, you wonder where you want your film to be seen in Korea because there are just too many of them. Maybe the one that will send me plane tickets?

Last night, an unbelievable thing happened at Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul. The so called surprise screening turned out to be a film they screened last year and that is available on DVD. Did they take the "surprise" element too literally? It's obvious. They were trying to secure a hot film but couldn't get it. Why didn't they then show the opening night film instead? What are they thinking?

Festival programming isn't just about looking at other festivals' catalog. You gotta know the sales agents, producers and even release dates of the films for the upcoming season. Based on its potential and size, Chungmuro should've taken off. They should've razzled and dazzled us with hot films like "Inglourious Basterds" and invited Quentin Tarantino, who I know for a fact wants to visit Korea again.

A great opportunity wasted, it seems.