Korea has won exactly one Golden Lion in the 93-year history of the Venice Film Festival. This September, a director who hasn’t set foot in that competition since George W. Bush’s first term is trying to make it two — and if the only Korean film names you know are Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, sit down for this, because the guy directing it is basically the reason their careers look the way they do.
His name is Lee Chang-dong, and if you’ve never heard of him, that’s honestly the point of this post. His new film, “Possible Love”, just landed in the 2026 Venice Film Festival’s main competition, and it’s quietly one of the biggest Korean cinema stories of the year. Here are the 5 things you need to know.
1. This is his first movie in eight years
Lee Chang-dong has directed exactly six features since 1997 — the man does not rush. His last film, “Burning,” came out in 2018. So when Netflix confirmed “Possible Love” had made Venice’s September 2–12 competition lineup, it wasn’t just “new movie” — it was what a specific slice of the internet had waited eight years for. It follows two married couples — a laid-off worker and his wife, and a wealthy documentary filmmaker and her husband — whose lives tangle together, which, knowing Lee, means class, quiet devastation, and nothing resolving the way you expect.
2. His last Cannes trip ended in a legendary snub
“Burning” set the record for the highest score ever on Screen International’s Cannes critics’ jury grid — hitting 3.8 out of 4, beating “Toni Erdmann’s” 3.7 from 2016. Nearly every critic gave it a perfect score. Then the jury handed it zero major prizes, just the FIPRESCI critics’ honor. It’s the Korean-cinema version of “La La Land” losing Best Picture, except worse — critics still haven’t shut up about it. (Screen Daily’s grid is still online as receipts.)
3. He and Venice have unfinished business
In 2002, Lee brought “Oasis” to Venice and won the Silver Lion for Best Director, while lead actress Moon So-ri took the festival’s Marcello Mastroianni Award. That was 24 years ago, and he hasn’t been back to Venice specifically since. Picture a director who won at Sundance in 2002 and didn’t submit again until 2026 — that’s the shape of this gap. Venice inviting him back isn’t a formality; it’s closing a loop on purpose.
4. The cast is a Korean prestige-cinema reunion
“Possible Love” stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong. Quick crash course:
- Jeon Do-yeon won Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 for Lee’s own “Secret Sunshine” — the first Korean actor ever to win a major Cannes acting award.
- Sul Kyung-gu starred in “Oasis,” the same 2002 film that got Lee his Silver Lion — a 24-years-later reunion with his own director.
- Cho Yeo-jeong is the actress you already know from “Parasite,” where she played Mrs. Park. If Parasite is your entry point to Korean film, she’s walking straight into a Lee Chang-dong movie next.
That’s not a cast list — that’s a highlight reel of Korean cinema’s biggest international wins from the last 25 years, assembled by the guy who kicked a lot of it off.
5. Korea’s second year running in competition — a first
Since Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” won the Golden Lion in 2012 — Korea’s only Golden Lion win, ever — no Korean film cracked Venice’s main competition for 13 straight years. Then in 2025, Park Chan-wook broke the drought with “No Other Choice,” a six-minute standing ovation that walked away with nothing on prize night but proved Korean auteur cinema still belonged there. Now Lee is back too: two Korean films, two consecutive years, after that 13-year gap. Screen Daily and Deadline have both floated it as proof Korean cinema’s post-Parasite momentum in Europe isn’t a one-off Oscar fluke — it’s a sustained wave, and Netflix funding this film is part of why. Streaming isn’t just where Korean content goes after festivals anymore; increasingly, it’s what pays for the festival films in the first place.
So is it actually going to win?
No idea, and neither does anyone else — the film hasn’t screened publicly, and Venice juries have a mind of their own where Lee Chang-dong is concerned (see: point 2). But regardless of what happens on the Lido this September, “Possible Love” is worth putting on your radar now, before the reviews land and everyone’s suddenly an expert. Netflix will presumably bring it to the platform after the festival circuit, the way it eventually did with “No Other Choice.” Until then, watch Venice’s September 2–12 lineup — Korea’s got two years of unfinished business riding on it.
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