South Korea has selected Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, the revered auteur’s first feature in eight years, as its submission for the best international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.
The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) unveiled the choice on Tuesday. In a public statement, its 15-member selection committee praised the film’s overall achievement, mise-en-scène, Lee’s characteristically deep humanism and the density of its portrait of class, love and desire. The panel also pointed unusually directly to its awards prospects, citing strong interest from North American media, Lee’s previous feature Burning (2018) landing on the Oscar shortlist, and a Netflix awards campaign that the committee said is also targeting the best picture category. Netflix has not yet commented publicly on its awards strategy for the film.
Possible Love will make its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival next month before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival for its North American debut.
The film reunites Lee with two of his most accomplished earlier collaborators. Jeon Do-yeon, who won the Cannes best actress prize for Lee’s Secret Sunshine in 2007, stars opposite Sul Kyung-gu, the lead of the director’s early masterpieces Peppermint Candy and Oasis. Zo In-sung and Parasite star Cho Yeo-jeong round out the principal cast.
Possible Love follows two married couples whose lives become intertwined after Ye-ji (Cho), an affluent documentary filmmaker chronicling laid-off workers, enters the orbit of Mi-ok (Jeon), her unemployed husband Ho-seok (Sul) and their young son. As Mi-ok agrees to be filmed, she grows closer to Ye-ji and finds herself uneasily drawn to Ye-ji’s husband Sang-woo (Zo), sending reverberations through both couples’ lives.
Lee co-wrote the film with his Burning collaborator Oh Jung-mi. Pinehouse Film, which also backed Burning, produces alongside Anonymous Content and NOWFILM.
Lee has represented South Korea at the Oscars before. Burning was the country’s submission for the 2018 awards season and became the first Korean film to reach the category’s shortlist, although it missed the final five. A year later, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite became South Korea’s first nominee and winner in the category, while also making history as the first non-English-language film to win best picture.
Possible Love opens theatrically in South Korea on Sept. 23, meeting the Academy’s country-of-origin theatrical eligibility deadline of Sept. 30. The film will receive a limited U.S. theatrical release Oct. 23 before launching globally on Netflix Nov. 6.
The 99th Academy Awards will be held March 14, 2027.
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