Media | Baeksang Over Blockbusters – How South Korea Defines Series Success

The Baeksang Arts Awards are among South Korea’s most prestigious cultural honors. Since their inception in 1965, they have recognized outstanding achievements in film, television (renamed “Broadcasting” in 2025), and theater. The winners are selected by a jury of around 60 industry experts and professional evaluators, who award works of high quality, social relevance, and artistic originality. Eligible are all productions released in South Korea between April 1 of the previous year and March 31 of the current year. Reflecting the evolution of TV consumption, the former “TV” category has officially been renamed to “Broadcasting” – a move toward platform-neutral recognition.

Most-nominated works in the Broadcasting category:

• When Life Gives You Tangerines (Netflix) – 8 nominations

• Doubt (MBC) – 6 nominations

• The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Netflix) – 5 nominations

• Lovely Runner (tvN) – 5 nominations

• Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born (tvN) – 5 nominations

Meistnominierte Filme:

• Love in the Big City – 5 nominations

• Revolver – 5 nominations

• Harbin – 5 nominations

• Uprising – 5 nominations

• House of the Seasons – 4 nominations

• The Land of Morning Calm - 4 nominations

Interestingly, the second season of the globally successful Netflix series Squid Game plays a rather marginal role at the 2025 Baeksang Awards. Apart from Roh Jae-won’s nomination as “Best Supporting Actor” for his portrayal of Player 124, the series was largely overlooked. This may be due to fierce competition – or the fact that, unlike the first season, Squid Game 2 has been widely viewed as narratively weaker. Moreover, there is no suitable Baeksang category to honor minor but iconic guest appearances, such as the Recruiter.

A different picture emerges at the 23rd Director’s Cut Awards, to be held on May 20, 2025, in Seoul. Organized by the Korea Film Director’s Network (KFDN) – an association of roughly 300 filmmakers – the awards are decided internally by peer vote. While the film categories overlap with those of the Baeksang Awards, the drama nominations diverge considerably. We’ll cover these in a separate article soon.

Netflix, meanwhile, is pursuing its own strategy: the streaming giant has submitted Squid Game 2 for seven categories at the 2025 International Emmy Awards. The 53rd International Emmys will be held on November 24, 2025, at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City.

This year’s Baeksang nominations ultimately reveal not just what is considered award-worthy – but also how national and international perceptions may sometimes diverge. The 61st Baeksang Arts Awards will take place on May 5, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. KST (1:00 p.m. CET) at COEX in Seoul. The ceremony will be broadcast live in South Korea on JTBC, JTBC2, and JTBC4. An international livestream is likely to be available via JTBC’s official YouTube channel or global streaming services – final details are still pending, but we’ll share updates on our Instagram channel as soon as they become available.