A young Swiss-Korean filmmaker has just taken a major step toward a global career. Hae-Sup Sin has been named the 2026 recipient of the Allwyn Residency scholarship, awarded as part of the EFP Future Frames programme at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. He will spend a month in Los Angeles working with two of Hollywood’s most respected talent agencies. The announcement was made on July 8.
Hae-Sup Sin impressed the jury with his short film Ban Da’l, which translates to Half-Moon in English. The film follows a Swiss adoptive mother and her son as they travel to South Korea to meet his biological mother. It explores adoption, identity, and family across two different cultures. The jury praised Sin’s distinctive directorial voice and the quiet emotional depth of the film.
Thanks to the Allwyn Residency, Hae-Sup Sin will spend one month in Los Angeles as part of a professional programme organised in collaboration with UTA (United Talent Agency) and Range Media Partners. During his stay, he will receive mentoring, job shadowing, specialised training, and opportunities to meet producers, distributors, and other key figures in the American film industry. For a young European director at the start of his career, this kind of access to Hollywood is a rare opportunity.
Hae-Sup Sin was born and raised in Opfikon, a small town in Switzerland. He began his studies at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2015 and completed his bachelor’s degree in 2019. He went on to complete a master’s degree in feature film directing at the same institution in 2025. His work as a filmmaker has consistently focused on cross-cultural stories set within diasporic communities—stories about people who belong to more than one world and are still finding their place in both. He is currently developing his first feature film, titled Some Korean Summer, another project that draws on the Korean-Swiss experience that clearly runs through much of his work.
The EFP Future Frames programme was launched in 2015 and has become one of Europe’s leading platforms for emerging filmmakers. Every year, ten young directors are selected to present their short films at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival while taking part in masterclasses, networking events, and meetings with international industry professionals. Since its launch, the programme has helped more than 100 filmmakers begin their international careers. Allwyn has supported the initiative since 2023, when it introduced the residency scholarship that Sin has now won.
Hae-Sup Sin was selected alongside nine other young directors from across Europe. The full list of nominees and their films this year was: Jozo Schmuch from Croatia with Shallow Ground; Marie Lukáčová from the Czech Republic with Orla; Helmi Donner from Finland with The Lightning Rod; Teilo Quillard from France with Zampano; Arnas Balčiunas from Lithuania with Past the Hill of Napoleon’s Hat; Ollie Launspach from the Netherlands with kiss kiss bang bang; David Champaigne from Slovenia with Self-Sown; Júlia Coldwell Serra from Spain with Nobody Barks; and André Vaara from Sweden with Sister of Mine.
The Allwyn Residency is being awarded for the fourth consecutive year. The first recipient, in 2023, was Amalie Maria Nielsen from Denmark, followed in 2024 by her fellow Danish filmmaker William Sehested Høeg. Last year, German director Simon Schneckenburger won the scholarship with his short film Skin on Skin. Sin is the first Swiss director to receive the award.
For a filmmaker whose work is built around the idea of belonging to more than one world, spending a month in Hollywood, the centre of the global film industry, feels like exactly the right next step.