NICE, France — President Lee Jae-myung, on a state visit to France, met with executives from the global film and video industry on the 7th and said "this is an era in which the most local originality becomes the most global competitiveness," laying out a vision for building a more advanced cooperation model between Korean content and global content companies and institutions.
Speaking at a roundtable on film and video held at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France, Lee said, "Your role is very important in discovering hidden gems in local communities, connecting them with audiences around the world and cultivating a sustainable industrial ecosystem."
Attendees from overseas included Isabelle Haskie, vice president for global policy and strategy at Netflix; Emilie Anthonis, head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the Motion Picture Association; and Pierre-Antoine Capton, chairman and chief executive of France's Mediawan. Korean participants included NAVER CEO Choi Soo-yeon, CJ ENM CEO Yoon Sang-hyun, CJ Group Vice Chairwoman Miky Lee, TVING CEO Choi Joo-hee and Nexon Korea co-CEO Kang Dae-hyun.
Lee said that while the keynote session of the Lumiere Summit held that morning was a venue for discussing a broad vision for the film and video industry, the roundtable was "a gathering to pool wisdom for the shared prosperity of the local and the global."
He pointed in particular to region-specific creativity and storytelling as the reason Korean films and dramas have succeeded in global markets. "Original narratives from each region, including Korean films and Korean dramas, have delivered deep resonance and empathy to people around the world," Lee said. "This goes beyond the achievement of any single country to broaden the horizons of world culture and enrich the global film and video ecosystem."
He stressed that cooperation between local content and global platforms should be structured more systematically going forward. "The synergy that arises when the originality of local ecosystems meets the scalability of global networks is the single most important system for expanding results for all of us," Lee said. "I hope we can build a firm virtuous-cycle partnership in which global capital and distribution networks combine with local stories that have potential, giving vitality to regional production ecosystems, which in turn feeds back into the competitiveness of global platforms."
He also made clear the government's commitment to support. "The government of the Republic of Korea will spare no policy and institutional support as the most reliable partner, so that global co-production, investment and global distribution in film and video can take place more actively," Lee said.
At an earlier meeting with Korean filmmakers, Lee proposed creating a national fund to invest in independent film and the fine arts. The aim is to build a virtuous cycle across the film and video industry by strengthening the creative base at home while connecting global capital and distribution networks abroad.
"I hope our conversation here in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a center of cultural solidarity, will be recorded in history as the moment that opened the beginning of sustainable prosperity for the film and video industry," Lee added.
