South Korea Picks Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love' for Oscar Race After Venice Premiere
South Korea has chosen Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love as its official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) announced on 28 August 2026 (KOFIC).
The film premiered in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where it screened on 5 September 2026 and is in the running for the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize (La Biennale di Venezia; Korea JoongAng Daily). The International Feature Film Oscar — formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film — sees each country submit one film, with Academy voters then shortlist and vote from that pool.
Possible Love is Lee's first film in eight years (Deadline). Lee, among the most celebrated Korean directors, was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an Oscar voter alongside Lee Byung-hun and Park Chan-wook (KOFIC).
The film runs 164 minutes — nearly three hours — and its story has roots stretching back to 2009, when a devastating mass layoff at a major South Korean company and the suppression of the workers' strike there set Lee on the path to writing it (Deadline; La Biennale di Venezia). The cast pairs Jeon Do-Yeon as Mi-Ok with Sul Kyung-gu as Ho-Seok, alongside Cho Yeo-Jeung as Ye-Ti and Zo In-sung as Sang-woo (Deadline).
Pinehouse Film — the Seoul-based production company run by Lee Joon-dong and Lee Chang-dong — produced the film with Anonymous Content, the American studio behind Mr. Robot and numerous feature films (La Biennale di Venezia). Possible Love is a Netflix film (Korea JoongAng Daily), placing a streaming-backed title in both a major festival competition and the Oscar race.
After Venice, the film moves to the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, where it has been selected for the official lineup (KOFIC). Toronto's festival, held each September, functions as a critical showcase for awards-season titles as distributors and Academy members begin narrowing their watchlists.
For a streaming platform, an Oscar campaign for an International Feature submission involves a different calculus than a theatrical rollout — voters must seek the film on the service rather than encountering it at their local cinema. South Korea's last International Feature winner was Parasite in 2020, which also took Best Picture. Whether Possible Love can replicate that trajectory is a question for the campaign ahead; what is certain is that an eight-year wait from one of Korean cinema's defining directors is over.
