Blue Dragon Film Awards: This Year's Nominees, the Date and How to Watch
The 47th Blue Dragon Film Awards take place on Wednesday, November 25, at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, and air live on KBS2 in Korea. Na Hong-jin's Hope leads the nominations with 10, followed by Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love with 8 and The King's Warden with 7. Eighteen films compete across 15 categories, and fans can vote in the Celebchamp app, where the public vote counts as much as one expert juror.
What Are the Blue Dragon Film Awards?
The Blue Dragon Film Awards are one of Korea's best-known film awards, held every year since 1963 and organized by the sports and entertainment daily Sports Chosun. They honor Korean films released over the past year, from best film and director to acting, screenplay and craft prizes, and the night itself is a big televised event with red-carpet arrivals and music performances. A separate Blue Dragon Series Awards in the summer covers streaming series.
This year's ceremony is the 47th. It takes place on Wednesday, November 25, at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, and airs live on KBS2. The organizer announced the nominees on October 28 after a round of expert and online voting that ran from October 13 to 25.
The season started early this month with the traditional handprinting event. On November 3, last year's acting winners, Hyun Bin, Son Ye-jin, Lee Sung-min, Park Ji-hyun, Ahn Bo-hyun and Kim Do-yeon, pressed their handprints at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall. Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin made history last year as the first married couple to win both lead acting prizes on the same night.
Who Are This Year's Nominees?
Eighteen films are nominated across 15 categories. Na Hong-jin's Hope leads with 10 nominations, including best film and best director, followed by Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love with 8, The King's Warden, this year's biggest box-office hit, with 7, and Yeon Sang-ho's Colony with 6. The World of Love and The Assassin(s) have 5 each. Here are the main categories:
| Category | Nominees |
|---|---|
| Best Film | Colony, The World of Love, The Assassin(s), The King's Warden, Hope |
| Best Director | Na Hong-jin (Hope), Yeon Sang-ho (Colony), Yoon Ga-eun (The World of Love), Jang Hang-jun (The King's Warden), Hur Jin-ho (The Assassin(s)) |
| Best Actor | Koo Kyo-hwan (Once We Were Us), Park Hae-il (The Assassin(s)), Sul Kyung-gu (Possible Love), Yoo Hae-jin (The King's Warden), Zo In-sung (Hope) |
| Best Actress | Go Ah-sung (Pavane), Moon Ga-young (Once We Were Us), Shin Min-a (The Eyes), Lee Jung-eun (The Journey to Gyeongju), Jeon Do-yeon (Possible Love) |
| Best Supporting Actor | Koo Kyo-hwan (Colony), Oh Jung-se (Wild Sing), Eum Moon-suk (Hope), Lee Min-ho (The Assassin(s)), Zo In-sung (Possible Love) |
| Best Supporting Actress | Kim Shin-rok (Colony), Park Ji-hyun (Wild Sing), Jang Hye-jin (The World of Love), Jeon Mi-do (The King's Warden), Cho Yeo-jeong (Possible Love) |
| Best New Actor | Moon Sang-min (Pavane), Moon Ji-hoon (Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub), Park Ji-hoon (The King's Warden), Lee Jong-won (Salmokji: Whispering Water), Joo Min-hyeong (Funky Freaky Freaks) |
| Best New Actress | Kim Si-a (Summer's Camera), Seo Su-bin (The World of Love), Lee Yeon (The Journey to Gyeongju), Jang Da-ah (Salmokji: Whispering Water), Jung Ho-yeon (Hope) |
| Best New Director | Kwon Yong-jae (Godangdo), Kim Mi-jo (The Journey to Gyeongju), Sung Seu-reo-un (Summer's Camera), Lee Sang-min (Salmokji: Whispering Water), Han Chang-rok (Funky Freaky Freaks) |
Two actors are nominated twice. Zo In-sung is up for best actor for Hope and best supporting actor for Possible Love, and Koo Kyo-hwan for best actor for Once We Were Us and best supporting actor for Colony. Possible Love, Lee Chang-dong's first film made with Netflix, covers all four acting categories.
The craft categories, cinematography and lighting, screenplay, music, art direction, editing and the technical award, round out the list, and Hope appears in every one except screenplay. The full list is on the official Blue Dragon website.
When Is It and How Can You Watch?
The ceremony is on Wednesday, November 25, at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, and KBS2 carries it live in Korea. The start time for this year's broadcast hadn't been announced when this guide went out; last year's show went live at 8:30 p.m. KST, which is 11:30 a.m. in London and 6:30 a.m. in New York.
No official overseas stream had been announced for this year. In past years KBS has put parts of the night on its official YouTube channels, including a live red-carpet stream on KBS Entertain last year, and its international channel KBS World TV aired last year's ceremony in December. The Blue Dragon Film Awards YouTube channel is the place to watch for clips, winner interviews and the handprinting videos.
If you're in Seoul that week, the nominated films are worth seeking out before or after the show, and our guide to Korean cinema culture explains what a night at a Korean movie theater is like.
Can Fans Vote?
Yes. Fan voting opened on November 2 in the Celebchamp mobile app and covers 16 categories: the 15 nominated categories plus the Chungjungwon Popular Star award. According to the organizer, the combined fan vote counts as much as one member of the expert jury, so it can tip a close race without deciding it alone. Voting runs up to the ceremony, and the app shows the closing time.
The ceremony also announces the winners of the Chungjungwon Short Film Award, a short-film competition for new directors open to Korean citizens and foreign residents in Korea, including international students. Expect congratulatory music performances too; last year Lee Chan-hyuk opened the show.
We'll cover the winners in a separate guide after the night. If you follow award season across music as well as film, our K-pop award shows schedule lists the year-end shows that come next.
Sori's Note
Every Blue Dragon year has a story the nominations tell before anyone wins. This year's is a long, patient one: Na Hong-jin's first film in a decade and Lee Chang-dong's first in eight years going in at the top, next to a box-office giant that half the country seems to have seen.
My advice for the night is to watch the speeches, not just the envelopes. Blue Dragon has a habit of producing the sentence people quote for the rest of the year, and it rarely comes from the person everyone expected.
