EBS documentary events scheduled for late summer
South Korea's public broadcaster EBS on Tuesday announced the return of its annual documentary-centered events that are open to the public.
K-Docs Festival, which seeks to champion emerging Korean documentary filmmakers and introduce new local titles to a wider audience, is set to run from Aug. 20 to Aug. 22.
Now in its fourth year, the event has adopted the title 'festival' for the first time, signaling a broader push to engage industry professionals and everyday viewers alike.
'This is our third year running the event. For Korean independent documentaries these days, it typically takes over three years on average to complete production and secure a theatrical release,' Hyung Gun, director of K-Docs, said during Tuesday's press conference.
With some of the K-Docs award-winning projects now completed and being released, the festival is holding screenings so that the films can reach audiences, he explained.
This year's edition will be anchored by core programs centering around the documentary screenings and domestic investor pitch sessions.
Three selected K-Docs projects — "On the Wings of a Butterfly," "Horoomon" and "Whales And" — will be screened at venues in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, during the three-day festival. "On the Wings of a Butterfly" and "Horoomon" will be screened with English subtitles, but no subtitles will be available for "Whales And." Each film screening will be followed by a 40-minute Q&A session with the filmmakers and audience.
Running in tandem is the domestic investor presentation, also held across Seoul. The pitch session retains its four established categories — K-Pitch Prime, K-Pitch Fresh, EBS Commissioning Pitch and Hi-Docs Pitch — with a combined support pool of 770 million won ($553,000). A total of 27 selected projects will receive production funding and prize money.
Standout projects will also be given a shot at international exposure, with overseas pitching opportunities slated for November at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the world's largest nonfiction film fest.
During the same press conference, EBS also unveiled details of the 22nd EBS International Documentary Festival, South Korea's longest-running documentary showcase. This year's edition will run Aug. 25 to Aug. 31 across venues in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and Seoul, featuring 62 documentaries from 35 countries.
At the event, Kim Kwang-ho, executive committee chair of EIDF, outlined the overarching vision for this year's event.
'We curated the program with more experimental and multi-layered works, reflecting on how documentaries can capture the spirit of the times and offer new perspectives on society.'
This year's lineup is organized by production region — Global, Asia and Korea — rather than by subject, a move designed to highlight the diversity and evolution of documentary filmmaking worldwide.
According to EBS, EIDF 2025 is anchored in the central theme of 'Expanding the Boundaries of Documentary.'
The broadcaster stressed the festival's newly launched category for documentaries titled 'Creative Documentary," which will spotlight innovative hybrid works that blend documentary with AI, animation and musicals.
Ten documentaries from the official selection will be judged during the festival, with the top prize carrying a 10 million won cash award.
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