[Anchor]
Interest in a diverse range of Korean films continues to grow in the United States. Korean films and actors have been officially invited to California's premier Newport Beach Film Festival.
Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has the story.
[Reporter]
The Newport Beach Film Festival is a 27-year-old event that screens feature-length, short, and independent films from Hollywood and various countries around the world.
With a strong interest in Korean cinema, the festival operates a special Korean program, and this year's invited work is "Jeju Olle."
It is a romantic musical film co-produced by South Korea and India, depicting the journey of a man and a woman from different cultural backgrounds who meet in Jeju, come to understand each other, and fall in love.
[Jin Kwang-gyo / Director of "Jeju Olle": I believe this is probably the first film made through the meeting of a leading Indian actor and a Korean actor.]
Female lead Anushka Sen is a top star in India with 50 million social media followers.
[Anushka Sen / Lead Actor of "Jeju Olle": I truly, truly love K-dramas and I really love Korean culture. "Hello, I am Anushka Sen. Thank you."]
[Kang Hyung-seok / Lead Actor of "Jeju Olle": I hope you can feel together how people from different cultural backgrounds can meet, what kind of relationships they form, and what kind of emotions they can share with each other...]br />
Singer BIBI was also invited to this year's film festival as an actor, and festival organizers stated that they plan to invite even more Korean works in the future.
[Gregg Schwenk / Co-founder of Newport Beach Film Festival: The Newport Beach Film Festival was a fan of Korean culture even before K-culture became a mainstream trend in the United States. We pride ourselves on having taken the lead in recognizing the importance of Korean culture and creativity.]
This year's Newport Beach Film Festival, with SBS International participating as a media partner, drew significant attention by prominently featuring new works by master directors such as James Gray and Danny Boyle.
(Video Editing: Lee Seung-hee, Source: Kim Haesol YouTube)
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