Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Sydney

2008 Seoul Drama Festival

October 11, 2008

Seoul Drama Festival logoThe Seoul Drama Festival is scheduled to take place at KBS Hall in Yeouido, downtown Seoul next Tuesday on Oct. 14. The festival first took place in 2006 as the Seoul Drama Awards. It was decided to re-name the event as a festival and increase the entertainment program.

The festival proudly paints itself as the world’s first television drama festival, hosted by the Seoul Drama Awards Organizing Committee and Korean Broadcasters Association, and sponsored by major local broadcasters KBS, MBC, SBS, EBS as well as Seoul Metropolitan City.

With this year’s slogan “Enjoy, Star & Story” the competition part of the festival received a total of 152 entries from 33 nations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The award ceremony is divided into the categories of drama film, mini-series, drama series and children’s series, together with a special prize and popularity prize. Individual prizes will be awarded to the best actor, actress, director, writer, cinematographer, music director and art director.

A host of Korean actors and actresses will attend the event, including Yoon Eun-hye, the star of Coffee Prince and Princess Hours among others, pop group TVXQ, Choi Soo-jong from Sea God, Wang Gun and other historical dramas.

This year’s nominees in the drama film category are Artemisia (Taiwan), Starving (Germany), Choice (Iran), Kobra’s Decision (Iran), Let’s Go to the Movies Tomorrow (Poland) and Devastation from France.

In the mini-series category there’s Ella Blue (South Africa), Patricia Marcos: Missing (Spain), Skins (England), Little Mosque on the Prairie Season 2 (Canada), Wild Chrysanthemum (Korea), and City Homicide (Australia).

The drama series are My Lucky Star (Taiwan), Murdoch Mysteries (England) Lalola (Israel), Princess Atsu (Japan), Hero Without a Name (China) and The Golden Bride (Korea).

In the children’s drama category there are The Amazing Extraordinary Friends (New Zealand), Ballet Shoes (England), Heidi (France), and Jungle Fish (Korea).

It has already been decided to award a special prize to the drama Secret of this House from Afghanistan about a young child adapting to post-Taliban society. The film itself is meaningful as the first domestically made drama film in many years. The popularity award will be decided through an online poll conducted by Yahoo.

Saori and Eva from KBS talk show Beauty’s Talk will interpret the proceedings into Japanese and English. The whole event will be covered live by SBS T.V. at 6 p.m.