Choi Jong-ryong is a film director and screenwriter. His feature debut The Melody of Suyeon (Waterdrop) tells the story of children left alone in the world who struggle to protect themselves, and it drew attention by winning two awards at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival. Originally a literature major in creative writing, he spent years writing poetry before discovering filmmaking through an independent film collective. With his short film Journey (2019), he received production support and began his professional career. He later completed his first feature through extensive rehearsals and on-site work with child actors, in collaboration with cinematographer Kang Jong-su, capturing a sense of realism. His films challenge and invert the roles of parent and child, protector and protected, to ask what family truly means. At the heart of his work lies a desire for audiences to act as guardians for children on screen, while shining light on the unseen realities of those left in society’s blind spots. He is currently writing new feature scripts that expand his exploration of family stories, this time delving into the adult world through drama and thriller.

Based in Jeju, she focuses on fireflies as her main subject, capturing the nights of Gotjawal and the island’s forests. Her work conveys the ecology of nature and the life of light. In her exhibitions, she collaborates with local communities and practices responsible presentation. Each year she photographs during the short firefly season, and in the off-season she studies Jeju’s landscapes and habitats. Through her images, she seeks to offer comfort and hope by showing beings that shine on their own in the dark. She is now preparing her 2026 solo exhibition, Breath of Light, Awakening the Forest, with the goal of building a lasting archive of Jeju’s natural heritage.

Pianist Moon Hyojin and bandoneon player Rim Sinai are the musicians leading the ensemble “Mulbit” together. Moon Hyojin is a composer and performer who captures Jeju’s landscapes and history through music, presenting projects that embody the voices of haenyeo and messages of peace. With the Jeju Youth Chorus, she performed the “Peace Requiem” on international stages, and this September she has been invited to the cultural festival in Osnabrück, Germany’s city of peace, where she will present lectures, performances, and an exhibition. Rim Sinai pursues sounds that move the heart through the deep resonance of the bandoneon, expanding beyond tango to collaborations with traditional instruments such as the geomungo. Together, they reinterpret Jeju’s traditional sounds in contemporary ways and share them with the world, creating melodies that merge light and water, just as their name suggests. Their music carries Jeju’s stories while remaining an artistic experiment of respect, harmony, and creative expansion.

She is a planner who views coffee as a language. After years of working in Seoul’s specialty coffee industry and experiencing numerous brands and projects, she settled in Jeju in 2019 and began to explore what it means to create planning that allows people to live together. Seeking ways for Jeju’s small coffee brands to thrive sustainably, she initiated Korea Coffee Week. This event has grown into an experimental platform that shares sentiments and messages, rather than a conventional trade fair. Each year, under themes such as “Coffee Is Blue,” dozens of brands interpret coffee in their own ways and create one exhibition together. She describes planning as “observing values closely and delivering them more clearly.” Today, she runs Cosmos Coffee Company on the first floor of the Jeju Communication & Cooperation Center, where new encounters between coffee and the local community continue to unfold.

A Western painter and migrant haenyeo, she began diving about four years ago in Taeheung 2-ri, a seaside village in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo on the southern coast of Jeju. Her studies in painting took her from Chugye University for the Arts in Seoul to Chelsea College of Arts in London, and in 2021 she graduated from the 7th class of the Beophwan Haenyeo School. The following year, she joined the Taeheung 2-ri fishing village cooperative as an active diver. In 2023, her first solo exhibition in Jeju, How I Accidentally Became a Haenyeo, earned her the nickname “haenyeo artist.” Much of her work is grounded in photographs and records taken underwater, shifting perspective between the surface and the deep. The Commute series captures haenyeo walking across basalt rocks into the sea with their orange floats, or taewak. The Floating Island series reimagines the taewak as both a safe zone and a small cosmos, while the more recent Na Haenyeo series expands the body and breath of haenyeo into images of cosmic navigation.

He runs the channel "Jeju Eddy," sharing stories of Jeju travel and local life with 140,000 subscribers.

Born and raised in Busan, he first came to Jeju in 2017 as a public health doctor, which began his connection with the island, and later he naturally decided to settle down here.

His main profession is Korean medicine, and after working in local clinics during his military service, he opened his own clinic in 2023.

While balancing the very different worlds of medical practice and video production, he continues to capture Jeju's landscapes, food, and daily life through continues to his content. From practical videos such as "Eight Reasons People Give Up Living in guides on local Jeju" to guides on local restaurants and travel courses, he offers information valuable to both residents and visitors.

Looking ahead, he plans to keep creating videos that highlight the real charms of Jeju while also expanding into overseas travel content.

Kim Bo ram is a traditional singer who carries Jeju’s folk songs and labor songs into the present with a modern sensibility. She first came to the island in 2006 after graduating from university for a performance project, and in 2013 she settled permanently after marriage. At Seoul Institute of the Arts, she majored in traditional performance arts, studying samulnori, pungmul, and mask dance while internalizing the power of rhythm and beat. During college, a class in Gyeonggi folk songs led her onto the path of singing, and in Jeju she deepenred her practice under the guidance of the late master Go Seong-ok. Her debut at the Jeju Folk Song Contest, where she sang “Nangttabi Sori” and “Cholhong Aegi,” remains an unforgettable stage in her journey. Today she performs pieces like “Cholhong Aegi” on stages, in schools, and on the streets, while also creating new works that carry Jeju’s sound forward.

Youngsook Kim and Nils Clauss are an international couple who have made Jeju their home for the past eight years. Youngsook, a self-taught baker, runs Breadpit, a baking studio specializing in naturally leavened bread, and is also active as an essay writer. Nils Clauss, who studied film in Germany and later learned cinematography in Korea, works as a filmmaker and photographer across a range of projects including films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries. Together, they value raising their children close to nature while maintaining a balance between life and work. Recently, with their two daughters, they completed a 14-day, 280-kilometer walk along the Camino de Santiago, from Porto to Santiago Cathedral. The challenges they faced along the way, as well as the kindness of strangers, became unforgettable memories for the family. They plan to continue pursuing new journeys through daily life and creative work in Jeju.