Old and new media productions vie for top Baeksang Arts Awards

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Old and new media productions vie for top Baeksang Arts Awards

Published: 07 May. 2024, 16:46 Updated: 08 May. 2024, 13:43

Poster for the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards [BAEKSANG ARTS AWARDS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE]

A showdown between traditional media and new media is expected to take place at the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards, which began at COEX Mall in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Baeksang Arts Awards recognizes excellence in film, television and theater in Korea and is one of the three most prestigious award ceremonies in Korea, along with the Daejong International Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

The awards ceremony this year will be broadcast live simultaneously on local cable channels JTBC, JTBC2 and JTBC4, and digitally on streaming platforms Tving and Prizm.

Comedian Shin Dong-yup and actors Suzy and Park Bo-gum will be the hosts again, just as they were for the past seven years with the exception of 2021 when Park was serving in the military.

″Moving″ is nominated in seven categories. [WALT DISNEY COMPANY KOREA]

Content on traditional broadcasters, cable channels, streaming services and YouTube between April 1, 2023, until March 31 this year are eligible for nomination, as well as Korean feature films and plays performed domestically during the same period.

In the television category, five works were nominated for the Best Drama award: "The Good Bad Mother" from JTBC, "Moving" from Disney+, "Revenant" from SBS, "My Dearest" from MBC and "Daily Dose of Sunshine" from Netflix.

Terrestrial channel dramas SBS and MBC are making a comeback this year with two nominations compared to last year’s zero. Still, non-terrestrial studios and streaming services remain as the dominant force in this year’s awards when considering the nominations for Best Screenplay and Actors. “Moving” and “The Good Bad Mother” will compete for the most wins in the drama category.

"Moving," a Korean teen superhero series, was nominated for Best Drama; Best Screenplay for Kangfull, the author of the original webtoon on which the show was based and who wrote the series' script himself; Best Technical Achievement for VFX (visual effects) director Lee Seong-gyu, who captured the effects needed for superhero abilities; and male and female Best New Actor for Lee Jung-ha and Go Youn-jung, respectively.

″The Good Bad Mother″ is nominated in four categories. [JTBC]

"The Good Bad Mother," which recorded a new all-time high viewership among JTBC's Wednesday and Thursday dramas, was nominated for Best Drama; Best Screenplay for screenwriter Bae Se-yeong for depicting the heartwarming pursuit of happiness of a mother and son; Best Actor for Ra Mi-ran, who played Jin Young-soon, a mother who lived a tough life raising her son into a prosecutor; and Best Supporting Actor for Kang Mal-geum, who played a warm and affectionate neighbor.

Terrestrial content competes with non-terrestrial content again in the variety program nominations. With the exception of MBC's “Adventure By Accident 2,” every other nominee is either from a streaming platform or online, such as ENA and SBS Plus's "I'm SOLO," Wavve's "The Community," JTBC's "A Clean Sweep" and YouTube channel DdeunDdeun's "Pinggyego."

"Pinggyego" is a talk show featuring Yoo Jae-seok as the host. The program started off in its early days with Yoo chatting with his acquaintances that consisted of actors, singers and comedians. Since then, the platform has branched out to produce more various content, such as hosting its own yearly awards and dance show routine, “Morning Colathèque.” It has over 1.9 million subscribers.

A scene from ″Pinggyego,″ a YouTube-based variety program [DDEUNDDEUN]

"Psick Show" became the first online program to win a Baeksang award last year.

The Best Film award nominees are “Cobweb,” “Noryang: Deadly Sea,” “12.12: The Day,” “Concrete Utopia” and “Exhuma.” “Exhuma” was nominated for eight categories in total: Best Film, Best Director and six times for Best Actor.

Find out more about the Baeksang Arts Awards at Celeb Confirmed

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]