SGIFF Stands by 'The Assassin(s)' After 109 PPP Lawmakers Object — SkimNews
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- SGIFF confirmed Hur Jin-ho's "The Assassin(s)" will remain its opening film, a day after the request to remove it landed
- All 109 lawmakers of South Korea's conservative People Power Party (PPP) jointly asked the festival to pull the film from its lineup
- SGIFF's Wednesday statement announcing the decision made no mention of the PPP or its 109-lawmaker request
- Cross-coverage of the controversy extends to Busan — a Deadline headline shows the BIFF jury publicly addressing "The Assassin(s)" controversy and its impact on the competition
Why it matters: SGIFF's decision — paired with a statement that didn't even name the PPP — signals the festival is insulating its programming from a unified 109-lawmaker political demand, an unusually firm stance against institutional pressure from a major political party. The film's selection survives intact, while the PPP's intervention is on the record but unacknowledged. The controversy has now spread to Busan's BIFF, where the jury is publicly engaging with it, meaning the film cannot escape political debate at either festival.
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