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SHIM Eun-kyoung Will Be First Korean Actor to Host Japanese Academy Film Prize
PARASITE Nominated for Best Foreign Film 44th Edition
Actress SHIM Eun-kyoung, known for her roles in the hit films Sunny (2011) and Miss Granny (2014), will become the first-ever Korean performer to serve as a host for the Japanese Academy Film Prize, often called the Japanese Academy Awards. SHIM will co-host the 44th edition on March 19 with Japanese news presenter HATORI Shinichi.
SHIM already made history in Japan last year when she became the first Korean actress to earn the Best Actress Awards at the 43rd edition of the Japanese Academy Awards for her role as a Korean-Japanese reporter in the Japanese film The Journalist. BAE Doo-na was previously nominated for KOREEDA Hirokazu’s Air Doll in 2010 but didn’t win the category that year.
Getting her start as a child actress in TV in the series The Woman Who Wants to Marry, SHIM first drew notice in the film scene for her leading role in YIM Pil-sung’s Hansel and Gretel (2007). She soon appeared in another well-received horror film, LEE Yong-ju’s Possessed (2009). Success came knocking a year later in KANG Hyoung-chul’s Sunny (2011), and once again in the Lunar New Year hit Miss Granny (2014), from director HWANG Dong-hyuk.
In 2019, SHIM made her Japanese film debut in The Journalist, which also netted her a Best Actress win from the Mainichi Film Awards. She has subsequently appeared in three other Japanese films, Blue Hour, Fictitious Girl's Diary, and A Garden of Camellias.
Meanwhile, BONG Joon-ho’s global hit PARASITE (2019) will also feature at the ceremony, as it is one of the nominees in the Best Foreign Film category, alongside major Hollywood tentpoles such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ford v Ferrari, 1917 and Tenet.
