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| Choi Min-sik, top, as Admiral Yi Sun-sin in a scene from "Roaring Currents" and Song Kang-ho as late former President Roh Moo-hyun in a scene from "The Attorney." Choi and Song are nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming 51st Daejong Film Awards. / Korea Times file |
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Daejong (Grand Bell) Film Awards, Korea's oldest cinema awards, will be held Friday at the KBS Hall in Seoul.
The organizing committee announced last Tuesday that 21 films were nominated in 17 categories for the upcoming 51st awards. Five films ― "A Hard Day," "Hope," "Roaring Currents," "The Attorney" and "Whistle Blower" ― will contend for the Best Film prize.
"Roaring Currents" and "The Attorney," two of the biggest box office hits in recent months, earned nine and 11 nominations, respectively.
"Roaring Currents" made box office history this summer. The epic war film, portraying Admiral Yi Sun-sin's dramatic victory over Japanese naval forces in the late 16th century, became the highest grossing film of all time in the country, attracting more than 17 million viewers.
With a whopping 11 nominations overall, "The Attorney" is a strong competitor of "Roaring Currents." The drama, which depicts early days of late former President Roh Moo-hyun as a lawyer in the 1980s, was released in the mid-December last year and garnered more than 11 million audiences.
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| The 51st Daejong Film Awards will take place Friday. |
Last year, "Miracle in Cell No. 7," which had 12 overall nominations, took four prizes including Best Actor prize while "The Face Reader," which had 11 nominations, won six prizes including Best Film of the year.
Another noteworthy category would probably be the Best Actor sector where actor Song Kang-ho from "The Attorney" and Choi Min-sik from "The Roaring Currents" will compete. Considering that Song, who also took a leading role in "The Face Reader" shared the prize with Ryu Seung-ryong who was in his starring role in the "Miracle in Cell No. 7" last year, there is a possibility that the prize would go to multiple recipients this year as well.
Besides Song and Choi, actors Kang Dong-won ("Kundo: Age of the Rampant"), Park Hae-il ("Whistle Blower") and Jung Woo-sung ("The Divine Move") are nominated for Best Actor, while five actresses including Son Ye-jin ("The Pirates"), Shim Eun-kyung ("Miss Granny") and Uhm Ji-won ("Hope") earned Best Actress nominations.
The Daejong Film Awards began awarding under the name of "Kuksan (Korean-made) Film Awards when it was established by the culture ministry in 1958. Renamed "Daejong" in 1961, the awards held its inaugural award ceremony the following year.
Though it has been considered as one of the most recognizable film awards in the country along with the Cheongryong (Blue Dragon) Film Awards and the Paeksang Arts Awards thanks to its long history, the Daejong awards has also been criticized for unfair judging.
The even faced a backlash from fans in 2012 when the critically-acclaimed "Pieta" won just two prizes, while "Masquerade" swept a total of 15 prizes out of 23 categories. Pieta received the 69th Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion.
Lee Gyu-tae, chairman of the organizing committee, said that the committee chose 21 nominees among domestic films released in the theaters in the past year, and said that judges will make a fair evaluation to choose 17 winners in each category.
"We will make sure that the Daejong Film Awards will be a festive occasion for all movie lovers," Lee said in a press conference.
