The Seoul International Drama Awards has unveiled the finalists for its 20th edition, spotlighting 24 standout titles and 32 acclaimed individuals from across the globe. This year’s International Competition drew 276 entries from 50 countries and regions, reflecting the growing global appeal of television storytelling.
Backed by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Seoul City, and major broadcasters KBS, MBC, SBS, EBS, and CBS, the Seoul International Drama Awards will announce final winners in September. The awards ceremony is set to air on October 2 via SBS TV and SDA’s official YouTube channel.
Some of the most celebrated names in global television have made the final list. In the Best Director category, nominees include Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (Asura), Denmark’s Bille August (The Count of Montecristo), South Korea’s Won-suk Kim (When Life Gives You Tangerines), UK’s Philip Barantini (Adolescence), and rising Korean talent Jin-ah Lee (To My Lonely Sister).
For Best Screenplay, major contenders include Dan Erickson (Severance S2), Soo Hugh (Pachinko S2), Sang-choon Lim (When Life Gives You Tangerines), and Stephen Graham, a past SDA Best Actor winner (2022), now nominated for writing Adolescence.
The Best Actress category features a powerful lineup led by Cate Blanchett, Rie Miyazawa, and Korean stars Dami Kim (Nine Puzzles), Jung-Young Kim (My Trouble-Maker Mom), and Minha Kim (Pachinko S2).
In Best Actor, the shortlist includes Adam Scott (Severance S2), Han Chin, Samuel Le Bihan, and Owen Cooper, who, at just 15, becomes the Seoul International Drama Awards’ youngest-ever nominee in the category for his role in Adolescence.
The OTT Miniseries category showcases global platforms’ dominance with eight nominated titles, including Netflix’s Adolescence, Asura, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and AppleTV+’s Pachinko S2. Notably, Adolescence and Pachinko S2 each received four nominations at the Seoul International Drama Awards.
While the miniseries category is dominated by nominees from global OTT platforms, the TV movie category is stacked with four domestic Korean productions, with three from media conglomerate CJ ENM (Unbalanced Love, The Son and Our Beautiful Summer) and one from broadcaster KBS (To My Lonely Sister).
International nominees include Mexico’s La Puerta Verde and Taiwan’s Though Dead, Still Alive, among others.
In the series category, Korean family drama For Eagle Brothers is among the eight nominees.
Turkish dramas The Good & The Bad and The Nightfall, which topped primetime ratings in Türkiye, are also nominated, alongside Singapore’s Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story.
