Albert Wiederspiel: "We are very sad. Kim Ki-duk was a searcher, a film artist in the truest sense of the word, who was constantly questioning himself and the artistic form of filmmaking. His award-winning films are intimate stories of seeming outsiders whose tragedies, however, are grounded in a fundamental psychology, including religious influences. Kim's characters are haunted by fears, guilts and the quest for redemption."
In 2012 Kim Ki-duk received the festival's honorary award personally in Hamburg and expressed his gratitude to the Hamburg audience with a traditional South Korean song, which he spontaneously sang a cappella on the big stage. Kim Ki-duk had close bonds to Hamburg. FILMFEST HAMBURG has screened four of his films: 2003 Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring, which was funded by Filmförderung in Hamburg and post-produced in Hamburg, the Golden Lion winner Pieta in 2012, Moebius in 2013 and One on One in 2014.