An older generation of actors and actresses will be competing for the top prizes at two upcoming domestic film award ceremonies, events usually dominated by younger and more popular names.
At the 25th Blue Dragon Awards, which will be held on Nov. 29, and the Third Korean Film Awards, which will take place on Dec. 5, veteran actresses Kim Hae Sook, 49, and Ko Doo-shim, also 49, have made the nomination lists for the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, for their portrayal of strong-willed mothers in recent films.
Kim, who played the single parent of Won Bin and Shin Ha-gyoon in "Uri Hyong (My Brother)", has been nominated in the Best Actress category of the Korean Film Awards, along with younger actresses Kim Hye-soo and Jeon Do-yeon. At the Blue Dragon Awards, the actress was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the same role.
Ko, who played the bitter and foul-mouthed mother of Jeon in "Ino Kongju (My Mother, the Mermaid)", was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by both award ceremonies.
Actor Baek Yoon-sik, 57, who played a veteran con artist in "The Big Swindle", was honored with a Best Actor nomination at the Korean Film Awards and a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Blue Dragon.
The nominations for the Best Supporting Actress category at the Korean Film Awards include "My Mother, the Mermaid's" Ko, as well as Yoon Yeo-jeong, 57, of "Springtime" and 53-year-old Kim Soo-mi of "Uidaehan Yusan (Greatest Expectations)".
Given the nominee lists for the two ceremonies, the overall winners they will select may turn out to be very different from each other.
At the 25th Blue Dragon Award, which will be held at the National Theater of Korea, five of the more commercially successful films of the year will be competing for the Best Picture prize. The record-setting blockbusters "Silmido" and "Taegukgi" have been nominated for the top prize, along with "Maljukgori Chanhoksa (Once Upon a Time in High School)", "Pomjoeui Chaegusong (The Big Swindle)", and "Inogongju (My Mother, the Mermaid)".
On the other hand, the Third Korean Film Awards, an event organized by the television network MBC and held at Little Angels Theater, Seoul, will give some of the critically acclaimed but decidedly commercially less successful films a chance at its Best Picture prize. Films like Kim Ki-duk's "Binjip (3-Iron)", "Sontaek (The Road Home)", about Communists imprisoned in South Korea, and the documentary "Songhwan (Repatriation)" are in competition with Park Chan-wook's "Old Boy" and "Once Upon a Time in High School". Only "Once Upon a Time in High School", a look at violence in high school in the 1970s, has been nominated for the Best Picture prize by both ceremonies.
At the Korean Film Awards, "Old Boy", which also garnered Park the runner-up prize at this year's Cannes, looks to be the big winner as it has been nominated for 11 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Park), Best Actor (Choi Min-sik), Best Actress (Kang Hye-jeong) and Best Supporting Actress (Yoon Jin-seo).
Choi has doubled his chances for winning the Best Actor category, as the veteran actor was nominated for both his role as a slightly crazed man bent on revenge in "Old Boy" as well as for his portrayal of a music teacher in "Kkotpinun Pomiomyon (Springtime)".
"Olgulopnun Minyo (Hypnotized)" and "My Mother, the Mermaid" are "Old Boy's" stiffest competitions at the Korean Film Awards, with eight nominations each. "Hypnotized", a psychosexual thriller about a psychiatrist and his female patient, was nominated for eight awards, including best actress (Kim Hye-soo), Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. "My Mother" has been nominated for Best Script, Best Actor (Park Hae-il) and Best Actress (Jeon Do-yeon), among others.
The nominees were selected by 500 experts in the film and arts field and 500 people chosen through an application process via the Internet.
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