Possible Love — Director Lee Chang-dong Says Oscars Have High Barriers

(Interview ① continued) Possible Love director Lee Chang-dong has shared his candid thoughts regarding the possibility of Oscar nominations and wins.

On the morning of the 6th, an interview with director Lee Chang-dong of the Netflix film ‘Possible Love’ took place at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

‘Possible Love’ is a story about a laid-off worker and his wife, alongside a documentary director and her husband—two couples who meet to produce a documentary and confront their different lives and hidden desires.

Prior to its official release, ‘Possible Love’ received critical acclaim by winning the Jury Grand Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival as the first Korean film to do so, followed by winning the TIFF Ebert Director Award at the Toronto International Film Festival as a first for a Korean. Due to this, domestic and foreign media have predicted that ‘Possible Love’ could land a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Jeon Do-yeon is expected to be nominated for Best Actress.

Despite the high expectations and interest from many, Director Lee Chang-dong expressed a realistic view, stating that the Oscar race remains “still difficult.” He noted, “People have a misconception due to the ‘Parasite’ effect, but a massive success like ‘Parasite’ was thanks to a wonderful film, but such a thing will rarely happen again in the future. Generally speaking, whether it is a film from Europe or a culture outside of American cinema, the barriers remain high even when looking at Korean cinema. The Academy itself continues to introduce improvement measures and pursues inclusive policies, but barriers still exist. Furthermore, we are latecomers. It hasn’t even been two months since it premiered in Venice. We have to start running from now on, and it is truly difficult in many ways,” showing a skeptical reaction.

Drawing a line regarding the possibility of winning by saying, “I don’t know at all. It depends on how we do moving forward,” he added, “Even looking ahead, I don’t know how much of this will visibly manifest. In my opinion, we must do our best anyway. Whether we wanted to or not, we were selected to represent Korea. Rather than it being about me or someone else winning an award, the actors and staff who made the film together worked their hardest, so we must make a maximum effort for them to receive evaluation and compensation for that part. I believe Netflix is approaching it with that same mindset.” (Interview ③ continues)