South Korean director Erick Oh’s short animation “Namoo,” which means tree in Korean, on Wednesday made it onto the 94th Oscar shortlist after being nominated in the animated short film category. The Academy Awards will announce the final list of nominees on Feb. 9 and the awards ceremony will take place on March 27, 2022. Oh’s new animation follows the journey of a man’s life -- from beginning...

Gong Yoo, who previously made his Netflix debut with a brief appearance on “Squid Game,” was honored to take part in this project. “Unique setting, interesting scenario and amazing cast aside, I was personally interested in a dystopian world and stories about the near future,” said Gong. “I was disappointed that Korean contents were lacking in diversity, where similar stories and genres were con...

"Spider-Man: No Way Home," the latest Spider-Man series film, has topped a cumulative 3 million admissions at the fastest pace in the pandemic era, box office data showed Wednesday. The blockbuster attracted 196,000 people on Tuesday, bringing its combined total to 3.18 million on the seventh day following its release, according to the data by the Korea Film Council. Its pace outmatched that of...

To mark the end of the year, the Korean Film Council is screening a selection of films from Indieground’s “2021 Independent Movie Library.” The movie library is part of an Indieground project to promote Korean independent films to the public and find new distribution channels for filmmakers. For this year’s “Independent Movie Library,” a total of 727 films were submitted and 87 films -- 22 fe...

“Special Cargo” featuring Oscar-winning “Parasite” star Park So-dam will be screened at 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Harbour program, according to the film distributor NEW. The film festival will be held offline from Jan. 26 to Feb. 6 next year. Founded in 1972, the annual film festival has been held at the end of January at various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 20...

The number of subscribers at CJ ENM’s streaming platform Tving has increased dramatically since October last year on the back of its original content, the company said. The number of paid subscribers to Tving increased by 256 percent as of Dec. 18, a rise which the company attributed to the popularity of its 60 original and exclusive content that it started offering in January. To further expan...

“The Policeman’s Lineage,” directed by Lee Kyu-man, will be the first Korean film in the theaters next year, according to the film’s distributor Acemaker Movieworks on Monday. “Despite the toughened Level 4 social distancing rules this summer, Korean films like ‘Escape from Mogadishu,’ ‘Sinkhole’ and ‘Hostage: Missing Celebrity’ were screened,” the distributor said in a statement. “Although we a...

The Korean Film Archive on Monday announced it will screen nine Korean independent films that were well received between December last year and November this year at Cinematech KOFA in Sangam-dong, Seoul. The nine films are “Happy Children” by Lee Ji-won, “I Don’t Fire Myself” by Lee Tae-gyeom, “Snowball” by Lee Woo-jung, “Festival” by Kim Rok-kyung, “Black Light” by Bae Jong-dae, “Short Vacatio...

"Spider-Man: No Way Home," Marvel's latest Spider-Man series film, is smashing the South Korean box office to become the most-watched movie in the first week since the pandemic, data showed Monday. The blockbuster attracted 1.74 million people from Friday-Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to 2.27 million in the five days following its release, according to the data by the Korea Film Council....

Don’t Look Up (US) Opened Dec. 8 Comedy Directed by Adam McKay Astronomy graduate student Kate Dibiaski (Jennifer Lawrence) and professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet headed straight for Earth on a devastating collision course. However, no one cares about the news of an approaching comet that can destroy the planet. The two decide to go on a giant media tour to warn...

At the Busan International Film Festival in October, “The Apartment With Two Women” won five awards, including the New Current Award given to the two best feature films by new Asian directors presenting their first or second feature. Before creating her first feature film, director Kim directed many short films, including “Submarine Sickness” (2014), “Hamster” (2016), “Playing With Fire” (2018) ...

"Spider-Man: No Way Home," Marvel's latest Spider-Man series film, has set the best opening-day record at the South Korean box office since the new coronavirus broke out, data showed Thursday. The blockbuster garnered about 635,000 viewers upon its debut Wednesday, accounting for 96.9 percent of the tickets sold on the day, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). It marked the largest fir...

Netflix on Tuesday confirmed the return of its Korean original series “D.P.” with a second season. Short for “Deserter Pursuit,” the series presents the life of Pvt. Jun-ho (played by Jung Hae-in) and Cpl. Ho-yeol (played by Koo Kyo-hwan) and reveals the reasons that some soldiers try to escape the army. The series, helmed by “Coinlocker Girl” and “Hit-and-Run Squad” director Han Jun-hee, is an...

Seol, who has united with Byun after “The Merciless,” said his strong faith in the director led him to join the project. The veteran actor, however, found much difficulty in playing the role of politician Kim Woon-beom, he said. “Since the movie features a political story, it was burdensome. ... Although my character was motivated by an ex-president, I couldn’t imitate such a great figure. I did...

Although this specific issue seemed to have been resolved in this manner, Korean Voice Performance Association head Lee Yeon-hee said this is not the only problem. The association has some 800 members. “There may be more roles available for voice actors but it does not mean that the lives of voice actors have improved. This is because their rights are not properly protected,” Lee said. “Netflix ...