JEROME YOO

Jerome Yoo is a Korean Canadian filmmaker known for his darkly comedic and visually striking explorations of cultural displacement and fractured identities. His debut feature Mongrels (2023) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim, praised by Variety as "a biting satire of immigrant dysfunction that recalls early Bong Joon Ho with a distinctly Canadian edge." Born in Seoul and raised in Vancouver, Yoo graduated from UBC's Department of Theatre & Film, where his thesis short Bad Hands (2018) won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama and played at SXSW. His work often features morally ambiguous protagonists navigating hybrid cultural spaces, blending Korean melodrama with Canadian indie sensibilities. Mongrels - a tragicomic family saga about a Korean Canadian hustler - went on to win the Emerging Canadian Director Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Feature at the Canadian Screen Awards. Yoo's distinctive visual style, combining neon-lit realism with surreal flourishes, has drawn comparisons to filmmakers like Kazik Radwanski and Lee Chang-dong. Prior to his feature debut, Yoo directed music videos for Korean hip-hop artists and the acclaimed short Han (2020), which screened at TIFF Short Cuts and Busan International Short Film Festival. He is currently developing his sophomore feature Gangnam Underground with support from Telefilm Canada's Talent to Watch Program. With his unflinching yet humorous portrayals of cultural dissonance, Yoo has emerged as a vital new voice in Asian Canadian cinema, offering fresh perspectives on the immigrant experience through genre-bending storytelling.