Lee Chang-dong Returns After Eight Years With 'Possible Love' at Venice
Lee Chang-dong's seventh feature film, Possible Love (Ga-neung-han sa-rang), held its world premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival on 5 September, screening in the Venezia 83 Competition section (La Biennale di Venezia).
It is the South Korean director's first film since Burning in 2018 — a gap of eight years that festival audiences have been waiting to close. The film runs 164 minutes, is in Korean, and carries an R rating (The Hollywood Reporter; La Biennale di Venezia).
Lee co-wrote the screenplay with Oh Jung-mi. The cast is headed by Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu as Mi-ok and Ho-seok, a blue-collar couple struggling after Ho-seok loses his factory job in a government crackdown on striking employees. A second married couple occupies a different economic tier: wealthy businessman Sang-woo, played by Zo In-sung, and documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, played by Cho Yeo-jeong. The cast also includes Jung Seop (The Hollywood Reporter; La Biennale di Venezia).
The Venice festival describes the film as a story of two married couples whose paths cross when a documentary is filmed (La Biennale di Venezia). The project is rooted in a larger initiative: Possible Love was announced as one of a series of reinterpretations of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog by international directors, with Lee's film centring on the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet" (The Hollywood Reporter).
Netflix is producing the film through Pinehouse Film, and the company confirmed production in August 2025 (Netflix). Possible Love was among five Netflix titles presented at the 31st Busan International Film Festival earlier this month (Netflix).
After Venice, the festival run continues at Toronto and New York. South Korea has already chosen Possible Love as its submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars. A limited theatrical release is set for 23 October, before the film streams on Netflix from 6 November (The Hollywood Reporter).
That two-step release — a limited run in cinemas, then a move to streaming inside two weeks — reflects Netflix's standard model for prestige titles the company wants in the awards conversation. For Lee Chang-dong, whose previous films Poetry and Burning both premiered at Cannes, the Venice Competition slot is a new festival home. The film is now in the running for the Golden Lion alongside the rest of the Venezia 83 slate.
