48th Daejong Film Awards

The Daejong film awards are the oldest and most prestigious film industry awards in Korea.  They are essentially the Korean oscars and they will soon be celebrating their 50th edition.  Just like the Oscars, they feature musical performances, celebrity presenters, and a host of other similarities.

Tonight the ceremony for the 48th Daejong film awards took place in Seoul.  A very even field battled it out this year as many films walked away with multiple awards and there was no outright champion of the event.  That said, while the films represented in this year's nominations were more-or-less all worthy contenders, they did not compare favorably to the stellar lineups of years past.  Last year's big winner was Lee Chang-dong's formidable Poetry,  while Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil and newcomer Jang Cheol-su's Bedevilled were among the other films that ranked high on the nominations list.

This year, the most nominated films were (wins in parentheses):

The Front Line - 12 (4)

The Yellow Sea - 11 (2)

Sunny - 9 (2)

War of the Arrows - 8 (4)

Blind - 7 (2)

The Unjust - 7 (0)

Hindsight - 5 (0)

Late Autumn - 4 (1)

Hello Ghost - 4 (0)

Late Blossom - 4 (0)

Detective K - 3 (1)

Romantic Heaven - 3 (1)

Moby Dick - 3 (0)

Poongsan - 3 (0)

The Last Blossom - 3 (0)

Bleak Night - 2 (2)

The six most nominated films were all big performers at the box office, each scored over two million admissions.  Currently I have only seen seven of the films listed above but it does seem like a poorer than usual roster.  As excited as I am to see The Front Line, War of the Arrows, Sunny, and Blind, I am not expecting them to make significant impressions on me like other Korean films have, but I hope I am wrong!

That said, this year's films are all solid and I am especially happy that Ryoo Seung-wan's brilliant The Unjust wound up with 7 nominations, although it is unfortunate that it wasn't able to bag a single win.  I thought it would pick up Best Screenplay at the very least but this went to Blind.  

I was also happy to see that  Late Blossom score 4 nominations even if it didn't win anything.  Personally I think it should have been nominated for Best Cinematography which  is always a great category for Korean film.  So far I've only seen one of the nominees so I'm exited to how the rest look, including winner The Front Line.

I was surprised that neither Quick nor the much-Ballyhooed Sector 7 managed to score nominations for Best Visual Effects.  The films were not well-received but by all accounts the effects were very impressive. War of the Arrows ended up taking the prize.

The biggest successes of the night were the big blockbusters The Front Line and War of the Arrows with 4 wins each, including Best Film for the former.  That result was not surprising as it is also the Korean selection for next year's Oscars.

In the face of some pretty stiff competition, Kang Hyung-chul won Best Director for the small but wildly popular Sunny, which also won Best Editing.

The acting categories all went to different films this year. Best Actor and Actress went to Park Hae-il for War of the Arrows and Kim Ha-neul for Blind, while Jo Sung-ha and Shim Eun-kyun walked away which the Supporting Actor/Actress prizes for The Yellow Sea and Romantic Heaven.

Bleak Night, which has very well-received critically but failed to draw much of an audience in Korea, was a big success tonight, winning its two nominations for Best New Director (Yoon Sung-hyun) and Best New Actor (Lee Je-hun, also nominated for The Front Line).  Meanwhile, best New Actress went to Moon Chae-won for War of the Arrows.

Best Production and Best Lighting went to The Front Line, Best Song went to Late Autumn, Best Costume Design went to The Yellow Sea, Best Art Design went to Detective K, and Best Sound Effects went to War of the Arrows.

Won Bin, who won last year's Best Actor for his role in The Man From Nowhere, was the recipient of the  Popularity Award.  This year's Lifetime Achievement Award went to actor Lee Dae-Geun.

Special thanks to Asian Media Wiki, which live-tweeted the results.

48th Daejong Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Film
Winner:The Front Line
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Sunny
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Director

Winner: 

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Nominees:

Jang Hun (The Front Line)

Kim Tae-yong (Late Autumn)

Ryoo Seung-wan (The Unjust)

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea)

Best Actor

Winner: 

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kim Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea)

Ryoo Seung-beom (The Unjust)

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Yoon Kye-sang (Poongsan)

Lee Soon-jae (Late Blossom)

Cha Tae-hyun (Hello Ghost)

Best Actress

Winner: 

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Nominees:

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Kim Hye-soo (Villain and Widow)

Bae Jong-ok (The Last Blossom)

Yun So-jeong (Late Blossom)

Choi Gang-hee (Petty Romance)

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: 

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Nominees:

Ko Chang-seok (The Showdown)

Kim Sang-ho (Moby Dick)

Ryoo Seung-ryong (The Front Line)

Yu Hae-jin (The Unjust)

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Jo Hie-bong (Blind)

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: 

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Nominees:

Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom)

Kim Ji-young (The Last Blossom)

Seo Young-hee (The Last Blossom)

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Jang Yeong-nam (Hello Ghost)

Cheon Woo-hee (Sunny)

Best New Director

Winner: 

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Sung-hoon (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Kim Young-tak (Hello Ghost)

Min Yong-keun (Re-encounter)

Park In-je (Moby Dick)

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Best New Actor

Winner: 

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Hwan-young (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Yoo Yeon-seok (Re-encounter)

Lee Je-hoon (The Front Line)

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Jang Ki-beom (GLove)

Best New Actress

Winner: 

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kang So-ra (Sunny)

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Baek Jin-hee (Foxy Festival)

Shin Se-kyung (Hindsight)

You Da-in (Re-encounter)

Best Screenplay
Winner:
Choi Min-suk (Blind)
Nominees:
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Front Line
Hello Ghost

Best Cinematography
Winner:
The Front Line (Joo Woo-hyung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Late Autumn
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Lighting
Winner:
The Front Line (Kim Min-jae)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Hindsight
Poongsan
The Yellow Sea

Best Production
Winner:
The Front Line (Lee Woo-jung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Moby Dick
The Unjust
Sunny
Poongsan

Best Editing
Winner:
Sunny (Nam Na-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Yellow Sea

Best Music
Winner: Late Autumn (Woo & Choi Young-rak)
Nominees:
Late Blossom
Romantic Heaven
Late Autumn
Sunny
Hindsight

Best Art Design
Winner:
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow (Chae Gyung-sun)
Nominees:
Late Autumn
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Costume Design
Winner:
The Yellow Sea (Chae Kyung-hwa)
Nominees:The Front Line
Sunny
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Visual Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Han Young-woo)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Romantic Heaven
Blind
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Sound Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Choi Tae-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Popularity Award

Winner: 

Won Bin

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: 

Lee Dae-geun (actor)