Spider-Man: No Way Home (US) Opened Dec. 15 Action Directed by Jon Watts 　 With Spider-Man‘s identity now revealed, Peter (Tom Holland) asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. But Doctor Strange’s spell goes wrong and dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man. 　 Encanto (US) Opened Nov. 24 Animation Directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard In the deep mountains of Colombia, there is a special place call

South Korean director Erick Oh’s short animation “Namoo,” which means tree in Korean, on Wednesday made it onto the 94th Oscar shortlist after being nominated in the animated short film category. The Academy Awards will announce the final list of nominees on Feb. 9 and the awards ceremony will take place on March 27, 2022. Oh’s new animation follows the journey of a man’s life -- from beginning to end -- next to a tree that collects all of his memories. Oh creat

Reflecting the growing popularity of Korean literature, 180 literary works were translated into 29 different languages with assistance from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea this year. This is the largest number of works translated in a year since LTI Korea was established in 1996. LTI Korea said the increased demand for Korean literature in overseas markets is also shown in the number of requests for translation support that it received this year. A total of 156 overseas publis

To mark the end of the year, the Korean Film Council is screening a selection of films from Indieground’s “2021 Independent Movie Library.” 　 The movie library is part of an Indieground project to promote Korean independent films to the public and find new distribution channels for filmmakers. For this year’s “Independent Movie Library,” a total of 727 films were submitted and 87 films -- 22 features and 65 short films -- were selected. A special screenin

“Special Cargo” featuring Oscar-winning “Parasite” star Park So-dam will be screened at 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Harbour program, according to the film distributor NEW. The film festival will be held offline from Jan. 26 to Feb. 6 next year. Founded in 1972, the annual film festival has been held at the end of January at various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2020, the festival premiered the black-and-white version of “Paras

The number of subscribers at CJ ENM’s streaming platform Tving has increased dramatically since October last year on the back of its original content, the company said. The number of paid subscribers to Tving increased by 256 percent as of Dec. 18, a rise which the company attributed to the popularity of its 60 original and exclusive content that it started offering in January. To further expand its reach, the streaming platform operator on Tuesday unveiled a list of new Tving original

“The Policeman’s Lineage,” directed by Lee Kyu-man, will be the first Korean film in the theaters next year, according to the film’s distributor Acemaker Movieworks on Monday. “Despite the toughened Level 4 social distancing rules this summer, Korean films like ‘Escape from Mogadishu,’ ‘Sinkhole’ and ‘Hostage: Missing Celebrity’ were screened,” the distributor said in a statement. “Although we are in a pandemic situat

The Korean Film Archive on Monday announced it will screen nine Korean independent films that were well received between December last year and November this year at Cinematech KOFA in Sangam-dong, Seoul. The nine films are “Happy Children” by Lee Ji-won, “I Don’t Fire Myself” by Lee Tae-gyeom, “Snowball” by Lee Woo-jung, “Festival” by Kim Rok-kyung, “Black Light” by Bae Jong-dae, “Short Vacation” by Kwon Min-pyo and

At the entrance of Korean content company SAMG Entertainment’s office in Gangnam, characters from the animation “Miniforce” greet visitors. In a company meeting room, a group of toys from various animations catches the eye. But SAMG Entertainment Vice President Choi Jae-won explains that it is not just a toymaker. The Korean animation company started producing toys along with the animations after realizing the value of IP content back in 2016. Since then it has been proving

Don’t Look Up (US) Opened Dec. 8 Comedy Directed by Adam McKay Astronomy graduate student Kate Dibiaski (Jennifer Lawrence) and professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet headed straight for Earth on a devastating collision course. However, no one cares about the news of an approaching comet that can destroy the planet. The two decide to go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy everything. Encanto (US) Opened Nov. 24 Animati

Korean director Kim Se-in’s “The Apartment With Two Women” will be screened during the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama program in February. The panorama program is a noncompetition category of the annual film festival. This year, 13 titles will be screened in the program alongside Kim’s 140-minute film. The 72nd edition of the film festival will kick off Feb. 10. Kim’s debut feature was created through a feature film production program

After the success of Netflix’s “Squid Game,” a local news outlet reported that the expansion of global streaming services has improved Korean voice actors’ lives as such platforms can provide more jobs. The article noted that there are more jobs for voice actors, especially after Disney+, which has a lot of animation content that needs to be dubbed into Korean, entered the Korean market this year. However, Korean voice actor Choi Jae-ho says global streaming servic

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday withheld its final review decision on Daebang Construction’s plan to resolve the controversy surrounding apartments near the UNESCO-listed royal tomb Jangneung in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. This controversy started after the agency found out in May that three construction companies -- Daebang Construction, Daekwang Construction and Kumsung BaekJoe Construction -- were building high-rise apartment complexes near the tomb in Geomdan, a new to

Don’t Look Up (US) Opened Dec. 8 Science fiction Directed by Adam McKay Astronomy graduate student Kate Dibiaski (Jennifer Lawrence) and professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a comet headed straight for Earth on a devastating collision course. However, no one cares about the news of an approaching comet that can destroy the planet. The two decide to go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy everything. Spiritwalker (Korea) Open

Peter Chung Soon-taick was officially installed as Seoul’s new Roman Catholic archbishop after an inaugural Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in central Seoul on Wednesday. The last inaugural Mass was held nine years ago, in 2012, when Bishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung became the 13th archbishop of Seoul after the late Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk retired from the post. In February 2014, Yeom was appointed as a cardinal and became South Korea’s third. In October, Pope Francis appointed Ch

Korean movie stars Park Jeong-min, Lee Je-hoon, Son Suk-ku and Choi Hee-seo are stepping behind the camera to direct a slate of short films for Korean streaming platform Watcha’s “Unframed” project. The omnibus short film project is jointly organized by Watcha and HardCut, a new production company co-founded by actor Lee Je-hoon, film producer Kim Yoo-kyung and film director Yang Kyung-mo. The project aims to gather unique and unconventional stories and marks the directorial

Spiritwalker (Korea) Opened Nov. 24 Action Directed by Yoon Jae-keun I-an (Yoon Kye-sang) is an intelligence agent. One day he gets into a car accident. When he wakes up he is in a different body and also finds out that he cannot remember anything. After that day, he keeps losing his memory regularly and also wakes up in a different body every 12 hours. I-an figures out that he has to find his original body to solve this situation and starts looking for it. Nothing Serious (US) Opened Nov. 24 Ro

The COVID-19 pandemic is once again shaking the Korean filmmaking industry, as two star actors -- Jung Woo-sung and Go Kyung-pyo -- tested positive for the COVID-19 virus on Tuesday. Other actors and crew who worked with Jung and Go now find themselves in a situation in which they have to halt their current projects and undergo COVID-19 PCR tests. According to Jung’s agency Artist Company, the actor went into self-quarantine after being confirmed as a COVID-19 patient on Monday night.

Korean director Kwak Jae-yong, a master of the romance genre, is releasing “Happy New Year,” a romantic film with an ensemble cast of 14 actors. Kwak, 62, has created many hit romance films, including “My Sassy Girl” and “The Classic.” The film’s format is similar to UK film “Love Actually,” which presents a large cast and tells intertwined love stories between characters. Kwak’s film includes young big-name actors like Han Ji-min

Netflix’s “Squid Game” has proven original content’s power to attract subscribers. Following the release of the Korean content in September, the global streaming platform’s monthly active users here reached 9.48 million, the highest since the company entered the Korean market, according to data from Nielsen Korea. Many of the major Korean streaming platforms have been creating original content to secure their own market shares in the Korean market. CJ ENM’