The Korea-Nigeria cultural exchange is taking a new turn, with Nigerian filmmakers using Korean culture to tell deeply local stories of abuse, grief, family, love, survival and resilience at the ongoing 2026 Korean Film Festival in Abuja.
Rather than merely bringing Korean cinema to Nigerian audiences, the three-day festival placed emerging Nigerian creatives at the heart of the cultural engagement, creating a platform where Nigerian filmmakers are drawing inspiration from Korean history, music, traditions and popular culture to reinterpret their own experiences on screen.
The development, which the organisers said reflects the two-way character of cultural diplomacy, is one of the major highlights of the festival organised by the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria (KCCN) from September 17 to 19 at Silverbird Cinemas, Abuja.
At the centre of the Nigerian component is the inaugural KCCN Short Film Contest, which attracted entries from 21 filmmakers across the country and produced films that connect elements of Korean culture with contemporary Nigerian realities.
The winning films demonstrated how cultural exchange can move beyond the conventional model of one country showcasing its creative works to another, instead allowing young creatives to absorb, reinterpret and transform cultural influences through their own artistic experiences.
Lagos-based filmmaker Maryam Abiola emerged winner with Too Loud, a 10-minute fiction film exploring emotional abuse, resilience and a young woman’s struggle towards independence.
The film draws inspiration partly from the Haenyeo, the renowned female divers of Jeju Island, whose resilience provides a Korean cultural reference point for a story rooted in the Nigerian experience.
The second prize went to Jude Francis Terkuma of the Department of Theatre and Cultural Studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, for Unspoken, a romantic drama about two university friends who struggle to express their feelings.
While incorporating elements of Korean popular culture, the film examines friendship, vulnerability and the difficulty of communicating emotions.
Opara Barbra Ifeoma of Abuja took third place with I’ll Do It For You, which showcased a young woman preparing to travel to Korea on a scholarship connected to a culture cherished by her late mother.
Through Korean music, food, language and other cultural experiences, the film explores grief, memory and the process of embracing a cultural legacy left behind by a loved one.
Two other Nigerian productions received Special Mentions.
MARKED, a documentary by Lagos filmmaker ThankGod Amah, examines identity, survival and resilience through the experience of a young girl confronting hardship, spirituality, illness, poverty and family instability.
I No Be Ashawo, a drama by Lagos filmmaker Buari Olalekan, tackles childhood neglect and abuse and examines how traumatic experiences can shape survival choices later in life.
Shot in Nigerian Pidgin with English subtitles, the film also seeks to stimulate conversations around child protection, accountability and the responsibility of communities to vulnerable children.
The Nigerian productions have consequently given the festival a distinctly local dimension, demonstrating how exposure to another country’s culture can generate new creative interpretations rather than simply consumption of foreign content.
The festival itself brought together Korean feature films, Korean short films and the Nigerian short-film competition entries, offering audiences an opportunity to encounter Korean cinema while simultaneously providing Nigerian filmmakers with a platform for international cultural engagement.
It opened on Thursday with the Nigerian screening of The King’s Warden (왕과 사는 남자), a 2026 historical drama directed by Jang Hang-jun.
Set in 1457, the film tells the story of deposed King Danjong during his exile and has recorded significant commercial success in South Korea.
According to Korean Film Council figures, the film had recorded 16,921,889 admissions across 2,262 screens by September 3, 2026, generating approximately $120.39 million in box-office revenue.
Friday’s programme featured The Book of Fish (자산어보), directed by Lee Joon-ik, and Move the Grave (이장), directed by Jeong Seung-o.
The Book of Fish, released in 2021, centres on scholar Jeong Yak-jeon, who is exiled to Heuksan Island during the Joseon era and develops an unlikely friendship with a young fisherman through an exchange of knowledge.
The film used their relationship to explore learning, social differences and the value of exchanging knowledge.
Move the Grave, released in 2020, follows four estranged sisters who reunite after discovering that their father’s grave must be relocated because of a modernisation project.
Their search for their brother gradually becomes an exploration of family, memory, unresolved relationships and the consequences of estrangement.
The festival concluded on Saturday, with the screening of the KCCN Short Film Contest winners and selected Korean short films, followed by Lucky Chan-sil (찬실이는 복도많지), directed by Kim Cho-hee.
The film centred on a film producer who unexpectedly loses her job following the death of the director with whom she has worked for years.
Her sudden professional uncertainty forces her to reassess her career, priorities and aspirations as new relationships and experiences reshape her understanding of her future.
The Nigerian short-film competition is particularly significant because it shifts the cultural exchange from a one-directional presentation of Korean culture to a conversation in which Nigerian creatives are also producing cultural narratives influenced by their encounters with Korea.
Through the initiative, KCCN is engaging young people, students, filmmakers and cultural enthusiasts while using cinema as a vehicle for people-to-people relations between Nigeria and South Korea.
The approach also provides emerging Nigerian filmmakers with an opportunity to place their work before audiences within an international cultural programme, while exposing Nigerian viewers to different approaches to storytelling, history, family and social issues in Korean cinema.
The festival’s combination of Korean feature films, Korean short films and Nigerian productions therefore creates a meeting point between two distinct cinematic traditions.
For the Nigerian filmmakers, the encounter with Korean culture has become raw material for stories that remain firmly rooted in Nigerian realities.
The result is a festival in which the cultural exchange is taking place not only on the cinema screen but also through the creative process itself—Nigerian filmmakers looking at Korea and then looking back at Nigeria with new storytelling perspectives.
A raffle draw at each screening is also being held to encourage audience participation.
The festival is taking place at Silverbird Cinemas, 1161 Memorial Drive, by the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Central Business District, Abuja.
With emerging Nigerian filmmakers now using Korean cultural influences to tell stories about experiences familiar to Nigerian audiences, the 2026 festival has moved beyond a conventional foreign-film showcase.
It is increasingly presenting cinema as a two-way cultural bridge—one through which Korea shares its stories with Nigeria, while Nigerian creatives use that encounter to tell their own stories in new ways.
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