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[PRESS RELEASE] Finalists of the Seoul International Drama Awards 2014

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  • 2014-08-14
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August 12, 2014
 
“The world’s best dramas of 2014”
Finalists of the Seoul International Drama Awards 2014
 
-      24 dramas have been nominated for the program categories: TV Movie, Mini-series and Serial Drama. 28 individuals have been nominated for the individual categories: Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best actor and Best actress.
-      World-class dramas including Homeland S3 from the USA and Orphan Black S2 from the UK advanced to the finals
-      5 South Korean dramas Good Doctor, Empress Ki, Jeong Do-Jeon, I Hear Your Voice, and An Affair have been nominated for the finals. Heated competition between Korean dramas and famous foreign dramas is anticipated.
-      Jeong Do-Jeon from South Korea and My Son’s Murderer Will Die Tonight from France have been nominated for both Best Drama and Best Director. Norway’s Mammon is a finalist for three categories, including Mini-series, Best Director and Best Screenwriter. Intense competition between these three dramas is expected.
 
The Seoul Drama Awards Organizing Committee announced the final nominees for the program and individual categories for the Seoul International Drama Awards 2014. The SDA 2014 received a total of 209 submissions from 50 countries, making it the largest scale in its 9-year history. 24 qualified dramas as well as 28 drama producers and actors have been nominated to be the finalists.
8 dramas have each been nominated for TV Movie, Mini-series and Serial Drama. Out of the 24 finalists for the program category, one of the most outstanding dramas, recognized for the overall quality, creativity and originality will be granted Grand Prize. Next to Grand Prize, two programs in each category will be awarded Golden Bird Prize (1st place) and Silver Bird Prize (2nd place).
The judging and evaluation for the individual category will be conducted in four categories - director, screenwriter, actor and actress. 28 outstanding individuals have been selected to be the finalists. Especially, Jeong Do-Jeon from Korea, Mammon from Norway and My Son’s Murderer Will Die Tonight from France have been nominated for more than two categories including the programs themselves, Best Director and Best Screenwriter. The public and drama experts of the world are paying attention to see which of the three dramas will advance to be a big winner across several categories.


 

Program Category

 

TV Movie: Solid and distinct storylines and styles in 1-2 episodes
 
 
                     <The Fat & the Angry, Sweden>                                                   <My Son’s Murderer Will Die Tonight, France>
 
France’s My Son’s Murderer Will Die Tonight is a revenge story of a father looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed his son. Spain’s Barefoot on Red Soil draws the life of Bishop Pere Casaldáliga who opposed Brazilian men in power and military authorities with non-violence for the rights of the natives. The Fat & the Angry is based on the world’s biggest credit card frauds, a global scam which happened in the second largest city of Sweden and ended up in the hands of the FBI. Ukraine’s Inseparable is a love story of a young man and woman during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine in 1986. The 8 feature-length made-for-TV dramas with clearly defined subjects and solid storylines will be competing against each other.
 
 
Mini-Series: Packed with internationally recognized and acclaimed dramas
 
 
                        <Good Doctor, South Korea>                                                                      <Homeland S3, USA>        
Most of the Mini-series nominees are productions that have gained popularity not only in their country of origin, but also in other countries. Korea’s Good Doctor, medical drama about an autistic savant with warm hearts battling his shortcomings on his path to becoming a pediatric surgeon, was hugely loved by the international audience and won Best Serial Drama at the Banff World Media Festival 2014. Including the only Korean nominee, a total of 8 dramas such as Mammon, Homeland S3 and Orphan Black S2 have been nominated. Homeland S3, a political thriller series based on the Israeli version of Prisoners of War, is focusing on the aftermath of the CIA bombing. A six-part Scandinavian thriller, Mammon, follows a journalist investigating financial frauds involving Norway’s political and banking elite, who ends up driving his own brother to commit suicide after pursuing a story about the scandal. Orphan Black S2 is a sci-fi drama about a young mother and orphan, Sarah, with a troubled past suddenly thrust into a bizarre mystery involving a number of other women identical to her who are all genetically-identical clones.
 
 
Serial Drama: Remarkable performance of Korean dramas including Jeong Do-Jeon and Empress Ki
 
 
                 <Jeong Do-jeon, South Korea>                                                                            <Empress Ki, South Korea>
                       
For Serial Drama, 2 out of the 8 nominees are Korean dramas, proving the strength of Korean drama production in diversified genres and forms. One of the nominees is Empress Ki, a historical series revolving around a Goreyo-born woman who ascends to power despite the restrictions of the era’s class system and becomes an empress of the Yuan Dynasty. The series depicts her loves and political ambitions between the two nations. The other one is also a historical drama, Jeong Do-Jeon, which reveals the secret story about the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, dramatizing an encounter of Lee Sung-kye and Jeong Do-Jeon. Beside the two historical dramas, some noticeable nominees include Norway’s popular daily soap Hotel Caesar that has been airing for 15 years, Turkey’s Medcezir, a remake of the popular American teen series The O.C. and Taiwan’s The Wish of My Heart, a true story of a determined and warm-hearted boy from a poor rural family in Taiwan overcoming extreme odds and making his way through to bring back his sisters and eventually reunite his family.


 

Individual Category: Three dramas have nominees for both Best Director and Best Screenwriter
 
  
    
   Best actor <Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock S3)>                                    Best actress <Hee-Ae Kim (An Affair)>
 
The competition for the individual category consisting of Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor, and Best Actress is just as keen as for the program category. Both directors and writers from three dramas – Jeong Do-Jeon (Korea), My Son’s Murderer Will Die Tonight (France), and Mammon (Norway) – have been nominated for outstanding s crip ts and direction.
For Best Actor, Benedict Cumberbatch (UK) has been recognized for his exquisite interpretation of the legendary Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock S3; Sagamore Stévenin (France) for his charismatic and entertaining performance in Falco; and Edgar Selge (Germany) for his talent in interpreting a heroic character in A Blind Hero – The Love of Otto Weidt.
For Best Actress, Tatiana Maslany (UK) from Orphan Black S2 plays 8 roles and counting with exceptional ease; Ji-won Ha (Korea) from Empress Ki persuasively interprets a kind-hearted yet sturdy queen; and Hee-Ae Kim (Korea) from An Affair surprises the audience with her talent in portraying a woman with an inner struggle between what is expected of her and what she desires.
All nominated works and individuals will be judged through fair evaluation by an international jury composed of TV production experts from various regions of the world. The final winners will be announced and awarded at the awards ceremony on September 4, which will be held at National Theater of Korea and broadcast live on SBS. The list of nominees of the Seoul International Drama Awards 2014 and more information about the festival are available on the SDA website (www.seouldrama.org/en).