- Handong Global University (President Choi Do-seong) Professor Shim Gyu-jin from School of Creative Convergence Education, along with his students, won the prestigious 'Grand Prize' at the 4th Seoul International AI Film Festival (SIAFF) for their AI short film.
- The Seoul International AI Film Festival Organizing Committee (Chairman Choi Jae-yong) selected Professor Shim Gyu-jin and Handong Global University students' work as the winner of the top prize 'Grand Prize' after a rigorous judging process. The awards ceremony was held on December 7 at Entre Bleu in Gangnam, Seoul.
■The Story of K-Gimbap That Began at Jukdo Market in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do
The award-winning work 'The Secret behind K-Gimbap' was created based on 'Chun-ie's Gimbap,' a story included in Professor Shim's collection of short stories published in 2017. Professor Shim reconstructed his novel into a screenplay and completed the AI short film with an original approach suggesting that the true origin of K-Gimbap actually comes from Jukdo Market in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do.
'Chun-ie's Gimbap' is a story set in a gimbap restaurant in Pohang's Jukdo Market, incorporating the generational hand-made taste, Korean affection (情), and the life of traditional local markets. Through this work, Professor Shim highlighted that the true origin of K-Gimbap, which is gaining worldwide popularity, lies in Korean traditional market culture such as Pohang's Jukdo Market. Students Yoon Seong-min and Lee Ro-eun from the School of Communication produced the video using various AI generation tools and prompting techniques based on Professor Shim's screenplay. The work received high praise from the judges for its storytelling that connects tradition and modernity, local and global.
■The Meeting of Literature and AI Technology: Achievement of Creative Convergence Education
In particular, this work is the result of the 'AI Culture and Arts Project' curriculum jointly developed by Handong Global University and the Minerva Project, and is also an achievement of educational innovation from the Glocal University 30 project. Since the second semester of 2024, Handong Global University has been operating a 4C (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration) curriculum in collaboration with the Minerva Project, focusing on creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.
■Global Expansion of Local Cultural Content
This award-winning work is also drawing attention as a case demonstrating the potential of 'Glocal' content that connects the local and the global by linking the local subject matter of Pohang's Jukdo Market with the global cultural code of K-Gimbap. Jukdo Market is Pohang's representative traditional market, a space where the living culture of the port city of Pohang, with over 70 years of history, lives and breathes. Professor Shim combined this local story with AI video technology and developed it into content recognized on the international stage.
The Significance of Winning the Grand Prize at Seoul International AI Film Festival
The 4th Seoul International AI Film Festival is an internationally prestigious film festival held annually to promote the development of the AI film industry and nurture creative talent. This year, 280 works from 50 countries were submitted, creating fierce competition.
Professor Shim Gyu-jin's team won the 'Grand Prize,' the highest award for Best Short, receiving international recognition for the experimentality and completeness of AI artistic creation and the excellence of storytelling. Through the award notification, the organizing committee stated that the work was "selected as a result of rigorous judging" and requested Professor Shim to attend the awards ceremony and share congratulatory remarks and insights on the future of AI content.
Handong Global University President Choi Do-seong said, "I sincerely congratulate Professor Shim Gyu-jin's literary sensibility combined with students' AI technology capabilities for winning the top prize on the international stage," and evaluated that "this is the fruition of Handong Global University's educational philosophy of nurturing creative talent with Holistic Intelligence in the AI era."
Professor Shim Gyu-jin of Handong Global University said, "I am deeply moved that the story of 'Chun-ie's Gimbap,' which I wrote as a novel seven years ago, was reborn as an AI film through the hands of students and won the grand prize at an international film festival," and added, "The recognition of the story of a small gimbap restaurant in Pohang's Jukdo Market as cultural content explaining the globalization phenomenon of K-Gimbap is a case demonstrating the value of local culture and the power of storytelling."
Students Yoon Seong-min and Lee Ro-eun, who participated in the production, said in unison, "In the process of turning the professor's novel into an AI film, we were able to deeply consider the essence of storytelling and cultural value beyond simply learning technology," and added, "We are proud that Pohang's local story was recognized as global content."
Following this award, Handong Global University plans to further strengthen its educational cooperation with the Minerva Project and expand AI culture and arts education programs. The university also plans to continuously pursue projects to discover local cultural content and develop it into global content.
[Photo1] Handong Global University Prof. Shim Gyu-jin and student Yoon Sung-min pose for a
photo after winning the Grand Prize at the Seoul International AI Film Festival on December 7.
