{"id":714947,"date":"2026-03-04T17:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-koreas-cj-enm-became-a-regular-oscars-contender\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:35:12","slug":"how-koreas-cj-enm-became-a-regular-oscars-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-koreas-cj-enm-became-a-regular-oscars-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"How Korea\u2019s CJ ENM Became a Regular Oscars Contender"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tWhen Bong Joon Ho\u2019s Parasite<\/em> won the Palme d\u2019Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019, Miki Lee, vice-chairwoman of CJ Group, the powerhouse Korean conglomerate behind the film, called an emergency meeting among her executives.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe gathered the whole senior management team and said, \u2018It\u2019s time for us to go after the Oscars,\u2019\u201d remembers Jerry Ko, CJ ENM\u2019s head of global film. \u201cWe had been preparing to go global in many ways, but we had never campaigned for an Oscar before \u2014 no Korean film had ever even been nominated. It felt like a tough mission for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscars glory came swifter \u2014 and bigger \u2014 than anyone at the studio expected, Ko says. Parasite<\/em>, of course, would go on to dominate the 2020 Academy Awards, winning best picture, best director, best screenplay and best international feature. The film\u2019s triumph soon came to be seen as a watershed moment for Korean pop culture\u2019s global rise, arriving just a year before Squid Game<\/a><\/em> became Netflix\u2019s most-watched series<\/a> of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut CJ ENM\u2019s awards ambitions and global expansion strategy were always about more than just a one-off Oscars phenomenon. Parasite<\/em> made for a triumphant start, but less noticed by the industry, the studio was soon back at the Oscars as a co-producer of Celine Song\u2019s acclaimed romantic drama Past Lives<\/em> (2023), which was partly told in Korean. This year, CJ ENM is again in contention with Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone\u2019s Bugonia<\/em>, nominated for best picture, best actress, best adapted screenplay and best score. A remake of the cult Korean film Save the Green Planet!<\/em> from 2003, Bugonia<\/em> was developed and produced by CJ ENM and distributed globally by Focus Features \u2014 an effort the Korean company viewed as its own answer to A24\u2019s success streak with offbeat, seductively packaged art cinema.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn recent years, CJ ENM has also weathered several coulda\/shoulda nomination near misses from some of Asia\u2019s top auteurs, such as Japanese Oscar nominee Hirokazu Kore-eda with his Korean-language drama Broker<\/em> (2022), and the great Park Chan-wook\u2019s critically acclaimed latest features, Decision to Leave<\/em> (2022) and No Other Choice<\/em> (2025).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut already, the recent track record makes CJ ENM the most decorated studio in Asia at the Academy Awards \u2014 and one of the most consistent contenders among non-U.S. studios, including European companies.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t(L to R) Jerry Ko of CJ ENM Entertainment, director Celine Song and actor Teo Yoo attend a press conference for \u201cPast Lives\u201d in Seoul in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChung Sung-Jun\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cEach of these projects had a distinct strategy and positioning for winning in the international market,\u201d explains Ko. \u201cPast Lives<\/em> was an A24 film that we could join as a co-producer and add a lot of value because of the film\u2019s Korean cultural elements and setting. Bugonia<\/em> was about using the great Korean storytelling in our library and reimagining it for global audiences with global talent. For Broker<\/em>, although it didn\u2019t make it to the Oscars, we worked with a great Japanese director to make a Korean film with a universal story that could travel<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Park\u2019s Decision to Leave<\/em> and No Other Choice<\/em> were only shortlisted \u2014 narrowly missing out on nominations in the best international feature category, keeping the esteemed director\u2019s unfortunate snub streak alive \u2014 Ko says the latter film was a significant commercial success for CJ, having achieved one of the \u201cstrongest overseas pre-sales numbers ever for a Korean film\u201d ahead of its launch in Venice. It later performed solidly for Neon in North America, bringing in more than $10 million over the holiday season.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Decision to Leave\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Cannes Film Festival<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAs astute a media industry observer as any of his Hollywood counterparts, Ko recognizes that the timing of CJ ENM\u2019s global push was fortuitous, arriving just as social media<\/a> and streaming were exposing and exciting a new generation of content consumers with culturally diverse pop culture. The shift, he says, began in the late 2010s, as younger audiences increasingly discovered films and series through globalized digital ecosystems rather than traditional, country-by-country media pipelines.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe flow of information about content has completely changed,\u201d Ko explains. \u201cBefore, audiences discovered films through traditional media in their own country. Now everything spreads through social media, and younger audiences are gathering recommendations and discovering content from all over the world, instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, streaming platforms further altered the reach and reception of traditional film and TV content. In the pre-streaming era, even acclaimed foreign films faced major logistical and commercial barriers to distribution abroad. Netflix swiftly helped global viewers overcome the \u201cone-inch barrier of subtitles\u201d that Bong famously mentioned in his best-director Oscars speech, teasing American viewers to embrace more world cinema.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBong Joon Ho winning the best director Oscar at the 2020 Academy Awards. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tTogether, those shifts \u2014 borderless digital discovery and frictionless global distribution \u2014 created the conditions for Korean storytelling to break out worldwide. Younger audiences, already accustomed to subtitles and dubbing through the global rise of K-pop, anime<\/a> and other international media, proved especially receptive. Parasite<\/em>, Ko says, arrived at exactly the right cultural moment. \u201cIt touched that threshold,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Academy\u2019s recent efforts to diversify by inviting more international members into the fold have also unmistakably boosted the worldliness of the tastes on display at the Oscars ceremony.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor CJ ENM, such changes have effectively leveled the playing field with Hollywood\u2019s traditional dominance. \u201cThose trends made it easier for foreign players like us to create global films,\u201d Ko adds.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Thirst\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Korean studio\u2019s upcoming slate suggests its awards ambitions and international goals are only intensifying. In the Bugonia<\/em> vein, Ko\u2019s team is working with Michael Mann on a reimagining of its classic Korean crime blockbuster Veteran<\/em> (2015), as well as developing star-driven English-language reimaginings of Park Chan-wook\u2019s Lady Vengeance<\/em> (2005) and Thirst<\/em> (2009), and director Kwon Oh-seung\u2019s 2021 psychological thriller Midnight<\/em>. The company is also preparing to begin production on its long-gestating baseball project Super Fan<\/em>, which tells the story of a Korean follower of the Kansas City Royals who became a minor celebrity over his passionate fandom. Somewhat like Past Lives<\/em>, the project has a mixed Hollywood and Korean cast in place and will begin shooting early next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tCJ ENM could soon be campaigning again alongside the figure who kickstarted the studio\u2019s Oscars trajectory, too. The company is again backing Bong Joon Ho\u2019s next Korean feature, The Valley<\/em>. The director\u2019s first animated film, The Valley<\/em> explores the relationship between humans and deep-sea creatures and will feature a score composed by John Carpenter.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Ko: \u201cDirector Bong\u2019s new film will wrap in the second half of this year and we expect to introduce it at one of the major festivals in 2027 \u2014 hopefully starting another exciting journey together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When Bong Joon Ho\u2019s Parasite won the Palme d\u2019Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019, Miki Lee, vice-chairwoman of CJ Group, the powerhouse Korean conglomerate behind the film, called an emergency meeting among her executives. \u201cShe gathered the whole senior management team and said, \u2018It\u2019s time for us to go after the Oscars,\u2019\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":714948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Bugonia-Parasite.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[25196,5519,160255,117403,160919,124783,1377,25023,72420],"class_list":["post-714947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-asia","tag-awards","tag-awards-2026","tag-cj-enm","tag-cj-entertainment","tag-international","tag-netflix","tag-oscars","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}