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- KOFIC Announces Selection Results for Korea's Submission to the Best International Feature Film Category at the 99th U.S. Academy Awards

-"A Masterwork Worthy of a Master" — Selection Committee Cites the Film's Completeness and Clear Message, Notes Strong Anticipation from North American Media

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC; Chairperson Han Sang-jun) has selected Possible Love (dir. Lee Chang-dong) as Korea's submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

Possible Love follows two married couples — a laid-off worker and his wife, and a documentary director and her husband — who meet through the making of a documentary and confront each other's different lives and hidden desires. The film marks Lee Chang-dong's first new work in eight years since Burning (2018), and drew attention for its cast of Korea's leading actors, including Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong. Ahead of its theatrical release, the film has already attracted international attention, receiving official invitations to the Competition section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and the Special Presentations section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.

The Korean Film Council selects one Korean film each year to submit to the Best International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards, at the request of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). This year's selection process was conducted in accordance with the newly revised "Operating Regulations for the Selection of Submissions to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film."

Under the revised regulations, ▲ the selection committee was expanded to 10 or more members to include a wider range of creative professionals; ▲ document-based review and written evaluation became the standard process, with in-person meetings held when necessary; ▲ the evaluation criteria were reorganized to focus on the film's overall quality, its distribution capacity in North America, and the recognition of the director and the submitted work; and ▲ the evaluation method was changed so that each committee member's assessment is converted into a score, with the film receiving the highest total score selected.

A total of 15 members took part in this selection, including committee chair and film critic Jung Sung-il. The panel highly praised Possible Love for its overall completeness, the director's clear message, and its outstanding mise-en-scène. It also noted how the film conveys, with great density, Lee Chang-dong's signature deep humanism and delicate direction, along with multidimensional characters and layered relationships. In addition, the committee positively noted the strong interest from North American media and the fact that Lee's previous film, Burning, became the first Korean film to advance to the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Meanwhile, the 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to be held in March 2027, and whether Possible Love advances to the shortlist will be confirmed by the end of this year.

Published under Public Domain Mark (Korea Open Government License — Attribution). For further inquiries regarding this release, please contact the person in charge. Source: Korean Film Council (KOFIC) https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/news/kofic_news.jsp?pageIndex=1&blbdComCd=601007&seq=1872&mode=VIEW&returnUrl=&searchKeyword=