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Key film event Daejong Awards rescheduled for June with smaller audience

By Yonhap

Published : April 30, 2020 - 11:46

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The promotional poster of the 56th Daejong Film Awards (Yonhap) The promotional poster of the 56th Daejong Film Awards (Yonhap)

The Daejong Film Awards, a major South Korean film festival and award event, will be held in June with a smaller audience than usual after the event was postponed in February due to the coronavirus outbreak, its organizers said Thursday.

The event's organizing committee announced that this year's 56th Daejong Film Awards, known as the Grand Bell Awards in English, has been scheduled for June 3 at a hotel in Seoul.

"For the safety of visitors and artists who will attend the festival, we will, however, limit the number of attendees this year in line with the social distancing campaign," the committee said.

The annual event was originally set for Feb. 25 at the Peace Hall of Kyunghee University in Seoul, but it was postponed in early February due to COVID-19 fears.

For this year's event, five movies -- "Parasite," "Extreme Job," "House of Hummingbird," "Innocent Witness" and "Forbidden Dream" -- have been nominated in the Best Film category.  Five directors will compete in the Best Director category, including Kim Bora of "House of Hummingbird," Bong Joon-ho of "Parasite," and Lee Byeong-heon of "Extreme Job."

This year's five nominees for Best Actor are Sol Kyung-gu ("Birthday"), Song Kang-ho ("Parasite"), Lee Byung-hun ("Ashfall"), Jeong Woo-sung ("Innocent Witness") and Han Suk-kyu ("Forbidden Dream").

The nominees for Best Actress are Kim Hyang-gi ("Innocent Witness"), Kim Hee-ae ("Moonlit Winter"), Jeon Do-yeon ("Birthday"), Jung Yu-mi ("Kim Ji-young, Born 1982") and Han Ji-min ("Miss Baek"), the committee said. (Yonhap)