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| Actress Lee Jung-eun, right, in a scene from the film, "Hommage" / Courtesy of June Film |
By Kim Rahn
Actress Lee Jung-eun has clinched the Best Performance award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) for her first lead role in the film, "Hommage."
It was her second time to win a prize with the 2021 film, following the Best Actor award at the London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF) in October.
The actress, who impressed international audiences with her housekeeper role in "Parasite" (2019), won the Best Performance category at the award ceremony for the APSA in Gold Coast, Australia, Nov. 11, according to Finecut, a film distribution and sales company, Tuesday.
She is the inaugural winner of the category, which has become ungendered starting this year, beating the four other nominees.
Director of the film Shin Su-won, who took part in the APSA as a judge for the youth, animation and documentary section, received the award on behalf of Lee. Shin herself was also nominated in the Best Director category for "Hommage."
The film drama is about a female director who struggles to survive in the film industry following consecutive box office failures. She is inspired to continue her work while restoring a film by a female director from the 1960s, blending the present and the past in a fantasy-like setting.
It was Lee's first lead role in her nearly 30-year career. Besides winning awards at APSA and LEAFF, she was nominated for best performance for the film in numerous local and international awards. "Hommage" has been also invited to a dozen international film festivals, including the Sydney Film Festival, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Women Make Waves International Film Festival and the Geneva International Film Festival.
Lee became the seventh Korean actor whose performance was recognized at the APSA since the establishment of the awards in 2007, following Jeon Do-yeon with "Secret Sunshine" (2007), Kim Hye-ja with "Mother" (2009), Yun Jung-hee with "Poetry" (2010), Choi Min-sik with "Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time" (2012), Lee Byung-hun with "Masquerade" (2013), and Jung Jae-young with "Right Now, Wrong Then" (2015).
