The Korean Film Council said on the 25th that it had selected director Lee Chang-dong's new film "Possible Love" as South Korea's entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
The Netflix film "Possible Love" tells the story of two couples — a laid-off worker and his wife, and a documentary director and her husband — who meet to make a documentary and come to confront their different lives and hidden desires.
The film marks Lee's first work in eight years since "Burning" (2018) and has drawn attention for its cast of leading Korean actors, including Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu, Jo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong. It has generated interest in the international film scene even before its release, having been officially invited to the competition section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and the Special Presentations section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.
Each year, at the request of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the Korean Film Council selects one Korean film to enter in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards. This year's selection was conducted under revised operating rules for the screening of entries to the category.
Under the revised rules, the screening committee was expanded to 10 or more members to broaden the participation of a range of creative professionals, and while document-based screening and written evaluation were set as the principle, in-person meetings may be held when necessary. The screening criteria were also reorganized to focus on a film's level of completion, its distribution capacity in North America, and the recognition of the director and the entry, while the evaluation method was changed so that scores are assigned based on each judge's assessment and the film with the highest score is selected.
A total of 15 judges took part in this screening, led by committee chair and film critic Chung Sung-il. The judges praised "Possible Love" highly for the film's level of completion, its clear directorial message and the excellence of its mise-en-scène. They also noted the deep humanism and delicate direction characteristic of Lee, along with the dense portrayal of multidimensional characters and the many layers of their relationships. The judges further gave positive marks to the strong interest from North American media and to the record of Lee's previous film "Burning," which became the first Korean film to reach the shortlist for the Academy's foreign-language film award.
Meanwhile, the 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March next year, and whether "Possible Love" will make the shortlist will be confirmed later this year.
