The nominees are out for the 51st annual Grand Bell Awards, the Korean equivalent of the Academy Awards to honor the industry’s best and brightest films and movie stars for the calendar year. This year the only K-movie I watched from the list of Best Film nominees was The Admiral: Roaring Currents, which judging by its runaway box office receipts pretty much everyone in South Korea also watched. It leads this year’s nominees with a whopping 11 nominations across all major categories but close behind is the well-received and also fellow box office hit The Attorney with 10 nominations.
Best Actor will come down to nominees Choi Min Shik for Roaring Currents and Song Kang Ho for The Attorney while over in the Best Actress category for awhile it was Shim Eun Kyung for Miss Granny but who knows how voting will go now that she’s currently starring in a drama dud. I was personally blown away by another Best Actress nominee Choi Won Hee for Han Gong Ju. For the young viewer contingent, a couple of idol-turned-actors snuck into the New Actor nominations with Park Yoochun for Sea Fog and Im Shi Wan for The Attorney.
Best Film:
A Hard Day
The Admiral: Roaring Currents
The Attorney
Hope
Whistleblower
Best Director:
Kang Hyung Chul (Tazza: Hand of God)
Kim Sung Hoon (A Hard Day)
Kim Han Min (The Admiral: Roaring Currents)
Lee Joon Ik (Hope)
Lim Soon Rye (Whistleblower)
Best Actor:
Kang Dong Won (Kundo: Age of the Rampant)
Park Hae Il (Whistleblower)
Song Kang Ho (The Attorney)
Jung Woo Sung (The Divine Move)
Choi Min Shik (The Admiral: Roaring Currents)
Best Actress:
Son Ye Jin (The Pirates)
Shim Eun Kyung (Miss Granny)
Eom Ji Won (Hope)
Jeon Do Yeon (Way Back Home)
Chun Woo Hee (Han Gongju)
Best Supporting Actor:
Kwak Do Won (The Attorney)
Kim In Kwon (The Divine Move)
Yoo Hae Jin (The Pirates)
Lee Kyung Young (Whistleblower)
Jo Jin Woong (A Hard Day)
Best Supporting Actress:
Kim Young Ae (The Attorney)
Ra Mi Ran (Hope)
Yoon Ji Hye (Kundo: Age of the Rampant)
Jo Yeo Jung (Obsessed)
Han Ye Ri (Sea Fog)
Best New Actor:
Park Yoo Chun (Sea Fog)
Ahn Jae Hong (The King of Jokgu)
Yeo Jin Goo (Hwayi: A Monster Boy)
Im Si Wan (The Attorney)
Choi Jin Hyuk (The Divine Move)
Best New Actress:
Kim Sae Ron (A Girl at My Door)
Kim Hyang Gi (Elegant Lies)
Lee Som (Scarlet Innocence)
Honey Lee (Tazza: Hand of God)
Lim Ji Yeon (Obsessed)
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The awards will be held on November 21st so mark your calendars for some red carpet glamour! I’m thrilled there isn’t a single questionable nomination in the list other than categorizing some actors and actresses as “New” when they’ve been doing film for quite some time. The most bizarre nomination is seeing Kim Sae Ron in the Best New Actress category since she’s been a film actress since she started acting with Man From Nowhere. Frankly every single nominee in the Best New Actor and Best New Actress category should be nominated in the Best Supporting category instead, but it’s like there were too many to fit in there so the more up-and-coming names got shunted over to the New category.
I’m amused that Song Seung Heon bared nearly everything but couldn’t acting well enough to earn some love for Obsessed while his two leading ladies scored their own nods. It’s also nice to see Choi Jin Hyuk continuing his hot streak especially since he’s going off to the army soon. It’s funny how some actresses just get so much awards love, like Son Ye Jin, who I also love but honestly she was not all that AT ALL in The Pirates. On the other hand, Jeon Do Yeon delivers each and every time.
I’m king of surprised to see Choi Jin Hyuk’s name though. Or anyone from ‘The Divine Move’ for that matter, considering how “safe” and uninspiring the acting in it was, even by actors who are capable of much more.
I mean, I haven’t seen many works of his to judge his acting in general, but he really didn’t have that many scenes in ‘The Divine Move’ and most were just him fighting or fighting topless. So what acting are they rewarding?
Still, compared to the joke that is most awards, this one actually has talent involved for the most part.
I was (pleasantly) surprised to see CJH’s name here too, because I’ve been rooting for him since his 2010 days and have watched some awful dramas for him, but like you said, his character in The Divine Move was pretty much a villainous, charismatic run-of-the-mill henchmen who had like maybe a grand total of 20 minutes of screen time? And that’s being generous. And yes the abs and pecs were glorious and the choreographed fight scenes were fun and a first for him, but probably not worthy of being nominated. Maybe if it was like for the MTV Movie Awards or People’s Choice Awards, it’d be more appropriate.
I mean, I watched The Divine Move and I adore CJH, but I really wouldn’t have nominated anybody from The Divine Move for an acting award either, but I, like Koala, have to admit that it was still nice seeing him nominated and I’m sure he must be feeling happy about it after being ignored from the industry for 6 years. It still cracks me up to see him being nominated for “Best New Actor” for his roles in Gu Family Book and Heirs. It’s the most bizarre conciliatory “prize” ever and I’m betting this nomination was another.
I would have rather seen him get nominated for his drama acting for Emergency Couple, but he wasn’t nominated for this year’s APAN awards. Again, I’m guessing the Grand Bell nom was a conciliatory nom.
YAYYYYY for Shi wan’s nomination! Currently loving him in Misaeng and now I intend to watch The Attorney. He was absolutely adorkable in Waiting for love.
second here…yeayyy for shiwan….My beloved ZE:A’s junyoung will say,”That’s ZE:A for you.”
Roaring Currents should slay all. It was so good! And The Attorney too!!
I agree on Chun Woo Hee, such a promising young actress, I hope she gets more roles. She came a long way from Vampire Idol 🙂
Im Shi Wan is amazing though. He deserves the acting recognition he gets, I can even see why he is being compared to Song Joong Ki. They both have a similar understated (NOT WOODEN! understated is not the same as looking like you are auditioning for a botox cf!) acting style and did well in a variety of roles for years before earning leading man status.
If son ye jin dosen’t win best actress it would be travesty
I want Jeon Do Yeon to win. Son Ye Jin is a lovely girl but I don’t find her acting amazing.
Choi min shik for best actor…period.
I was so confused seeing so many 2013 movies here.
My pick for best actress would be Jeon Do Yeon, though Chun Woo Hee is a good pick too.
It seems that the Grand Bell, like the Oscars, is a celebration of mainstream success rather than actual cinematic quality. The fact that Bae Doona is not even nominated as best actress immediately invalidate the prize. A Girl at the Door was last year’s best Korean movie and Bae gave the by far best performance.
Yes, I’m surprised too that Bae Doona isn’t even nominated. Well, at least she’s been winning awards internationally, even if her own country doesn’t want recognise her stellar performance.
I also think the New Actor category is ridiculous. It should contain NEW actors – like people who deliver a notable ‘first role with lines’. Not actors who have 5-10+ films/dramas on their resume. Only Lim Ji Yeon and Ahn Jae-Hong are really new from both the male/female list (Im Siwan may be too – depending on the exact release date of the movie he’s nominated for).
Nominations look better than for any drama awards I’ve seen, but I still have my doubts… awards in Korea aren’t something I can take very seriously I’m afraid.
LOL, Im Si Wan has the most dramas to tell you..about 10 DRAMAS including cameos..I personally think DRAMA & FILM both were so different league..u may succeed in drama but maybe not in film and vice versa..
That may be… I checked on asianwiki, where he hasn’t got that many listed (7 dramas, 1 TV film, 2 cinema films) – and several those that are from 2013 or 2014. The film he is nominated for is from 2013, which is why I said that it depends when exactly it was released. Some of the earlier suggest just “teen”, meaning he played a younger version of the character. That could translated into 2 min screen time or a whole episode of lines – I haven’t seen him in anything except Misaeng and Triangle, in which he has substantial roles, but both of those were made after the film.
Drama and film acting is different, but I think only because we’ve lowered our standards for dramas. It’s not that drama actors can’t deliver performances that are on the same level as film acting. But then again, many really good drama actors often branch out into film (sometimes leaving the drama world behind entirely).