Final entries for Seoul International Drama Awards 2015

SDA 2015 Poster

JUNE 22, 2015. SEOUL, KOREA – The Seoul International Drama Awards Organizing Committee today announced the final entries of the 10th Seoul International Drama Awards 2015. Beginning in 2006, the Seoul International Drama Awards 2015 marks its 10th anniversary this year. To celebrate its 10th year, the award festival features dramas that have been highly acclaimed for their cinematic quality and popularity. Featuring diverse international drama productions, the annual awards festival received a total of 212 submissions from 48 nations including first time participating countries such as Slovenia and Cambodia.

From Korea, Temptation starring original hallyu (the Korean Wave) stars Sang-woo Kwon and Ji-woo Choi, Kill Me Heal Me which stars Ji Sung as a wealthy heir who deals with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and a romantic comedy drama Discovery of Love which takes a realistic approach to dating featuring Yu-mi Jung and Eric Mun were included in the list of the entries. Also, global hit drama series such as Doctor Who S8, Modern Family S6, and Glee S6 can all be found on the list of entries.

Pinocchio

The 10th annual celebration of the Seoul International Drama Awards

The Seoul International Drama Awards is the world’s leading drama festival that introduces and recognizes the excellent quality and diversity of television dramas from all over the world. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the awards has raised visibility and publicity for local audiences. This year, the award festival extended non-competition categories instead of existing Runners-up (Silver Bird Prize) to secure more room to invite various dramas and celebrities widely known to the Korean public. Also, a selection of SDA 2015 entries will be televised by the 4 terrestrial channels (KBS, MBC, SBS, and EBS) ahead of the award ceremony so that more local drama fans can enjoy watching global dramas that have gained world recognition and care to see the final winners.

In particular, SDA 2015 will host the 10th year ‘Homecoming Party’, to which previous SDA winners will be invited to celebrate the anniversary and golden age of drama. Along with the Homecoming Party, the SDA 2015 will host several events (TV Movie Premiere/Celeb Cinema, Drama Music Concert, and Global Drama Forum) in association with MBC and other related organizations.

Difference in topic selection

Some of Korean drama entries reinterpret commonly-used themes with a modern viewpoint and other dramas introduce various and fresh themes showing strong trends. Among the Korean dramas submitted are What Happens to My Family which deals with a social issue and shows what makes us family, and 4 Legendary Witches which reinterprets the true meaning of family through four unrelated females becoming a family of sisters. Meanwhile, Discovery of Love which keeps an ordinary love story fresh and interesting through an interview format monologue and touching dialogue, is also on the entry list. Also, Pinocchio and You’re All Surrounded which depict typical revenge stories from new perspectives using specific occupations like city desk reporters and detectives, are noticeable.

In the case of other entries, dramas with various and fresh themes which have captured audiences of all ages were submitted. For a while, a topic of ‘working life’ has been used only for parts of a drama’s composition. However, Misaeng-incomplete Life used the lives of salary workers as a main theme and recorded exceptionally high viewer ratings and created the ‘Misaeng syndrome’. Emergency Couple, a romantic comedy about a divorced couple who gets a second chance to understand and love each other in an emergency room, More Than A Maid which depicts the joys and sorrows of the lowest class of servants during the early Joseon era through a modern historical drama format, and Yuna’s Street which inspired many audiences from realistically portraying various types of men living in a multiplex house are also included in the list of entries.

Diversification of Foreign Drama Genres

A wide range of foreign dramas, which embrace various genres and themes including crime thriller, fantasy, period, and comedy, were submitted. In particular, high quality crime thriller dramas are capturing audience’s attention. Kept Women (Canada) which is a story about a psychopath’s kidnapping case inspired by true events, Crossing Lines (Germany) which is about an international serial crime case investigated by a Europe-based FBI under the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Acquitted (Norway) which discovers the hidden secret of a murder case that occurred 20 years ago, have made it to this year’s entry list.

Also, a good number of entries feature time travel, which is one of the most popular themes in scripted programming. UK’s representative SF drama Doctor Who S8 (UK) which has been loved by audiences for more than 50 years since 1964, and The Department of Time (Spain) which is a series of journeys back in time undertaken by a special patrol unit to prevent the past from changing are included.

More American comedies have been entered to the 2015 competition. Along with a long-running Modern Family S6, new shows such as Jane the Virgin and Fresh off the Boat were submitted. Musical dramas include Glee S6 (US), Nashville S3 (US) and Empire (US). In addition, Call the Midwife S4 (UK) which is about a group of nurse midwives working in East London in the 1950s and 1960s and Masters of Sex S2 (US), a series exploring the research and the relationship between two pioneering researchers of human sexuality, set in the 1950s through the early 1960s, fit in the period drama category.

‘The Seoul International Drama Awards 2015’ will be held on Thursday, September 10th at the new MBC Sang-am HQ Square, and produced and televised on MBC. For more information, please visit the official website at www.seouldrama.org/en

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