KOFFIA 2025: Korean Film Festival Brings Exclusive Premieres and Genre-Spanning Thrills

The Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) enters its final stretch, with just two days left for Sydney audiences to catch premieres and in-person Q&A’s with visiting filmmakers.

Running at Event Cinemas George Street, the 16th edition is packed with thrillers, romances, comedies and classics.

With prominent directors and an actor in attendance, audiences have the chance to hear directly from the people behind some of Korea’s most anticipated releases.

Programmer Francis Lee calls the 2025 line-up “one of our most diverse and exciting yet,” adding that the expanded tour program “gives more Australians the chance to connect with Korean culture.”

Korean Film Festival returns with biggest program yet

Since Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite swept the Oscars, Korean cinema has been firmly embedded in global film culture.

The spotlight only underlines Korea’s long-held reputation for originality and craft, producing films that are as inventive as they have been impactful.

Genre-bending thrills like Train to Busan and icon Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden set the tone for contemporary cinema: dark and daring, but never without wit or heart.

That same energy has carried itself into streaming as Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters crossed into theatres, even dominating charts with its original music.

Even in remakes, Korean storytelling rarely panders to outside audiences, thriving across genres on its own terms, whether through spectacle, relatable themes and standout performances.

KOFFIA channels that spirit back to where it hits hardest: on the big screen.

Six exclusive titles deliver thrills, romance and mystery to George Street

The run opened with Hidden Face, pairing Song Seung-heon with Parasite’s Cho Yeo-jeong in a psychological mystery set in the world of classical music.

It was followed by a newly restored 4K Shiri (1999), the blockbuster credited with sparking the Korean Wave, in which two South Korean agents race to stop a deadly bomb plot in Seoul.

The program now shifts to romance with The Daechi Scandal, starring former Wonder Girls singer An So-hee as a language tutor navigating reputation and ambition in Seoul’s fiercely competitive tutoring sector.

Catch crime-thriller Dirty Money which follows three corrupt police attempts to rob a syndicate igniting a violent fallout.

While Secret: Untold Melody reworks a Taiwanese cult favourite into a time-slip romance led by EXO’s Doh Kyung-soo (D.O.).

For something lighter, The Noisy Mansion delivers comic mystery as tenants band together to investigate strange noises rattling their apartment block.

First-time director Lee Lu-da and actress Gyeong Su-Jin will join for a post-screening Q&A.

Rounding out the program, About Family, directed by former webtoon artist Yang Woo-seok and starring Kim Yun-seok and Lee Seung-gi. The comedy-drama follows a chef blindsided by children who walk into his restaurant claiming to be his grandchildren.

Yang will introduce the film and stay for a post-screening discussion.

KOFFIA tour extends free screenings to six regional centres

Once Sydney wraps, KOFFIA will take a four-film touring program, with free screenings to Parramatta, Toowoomba and more regional centres.

From thrillers to comedies, KOFFIA 2025 shows why Korean cinema continues to cut through worldwide—and why Sydney cinephiles will want to catch it before the final credits roll.

The Korean Film Festival is on till 26 August at Event Cinemas George Street.