2012 will go down as a meaningul year in Korea’s film history. In September, Korean movie “Pieta,” directed by Kim Ki-duck, won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first Korean movie to claim the top prize of one of the world’s three most prestigious film festivals.

The domestic film industry has recently set a more significant milestone: It broke the 100 million mark in annual audience number for the first time. According to the Korean Film Council, this year’s combined total of domestic film viewers topped 100 million on Nov. 20, shattering the previous record of 98 million set in 2006.

The record means all of Korea’s 50 million population watched two locally produced movies on average this year. The figure suggests a strong preference for homegrown films among Korean moviegoers. Comparable figures for other countries are one in Great Britain, 0.49 in Japan, and 0.35 in France and Germany.

The 100-million milestone heralds a renaissance of Korean film. It means the local film industry has risen to the challenge posed by the reduction in 2006 of the screen quota ― the number of days that Korean theaters are required to show homespun movies.

Cutting the quota was one of the demands put forward by the United States for the conclusion of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. Under pressure from Washington, the Seoul government cut the minimum number of screening days of Korean films from 106 days to 73 days a year.

At the time, the cinema industry resolutely opposed the quota cut, saying that it would threaten the existence of Korean film. Indeed, the market share of Korean films continued to decline following the quota adjustment.

Yet the industry has made desperate efforts for survival and as a result secured competitiveness. Now it has come back much stronger, proving that the opening of the film market was a step in the right direction.

This year, Korean films’ market share hit 59 percent, up 7 percentage points from last year. The surge was led by two megahits that attracted more than 10 million viewers each ― “The Thieves” and “Masquerade.” A total of 27 films attracted more than a million viewers.

While the film industry has opened a new chapter, it faces new challenges. As in other sectors of Korean society, polarization is serious in the cinema industry. Screens are dominated by films produced by conglomerates, while low-budget producers have difficulty showing their movies to the audience. This will restrict the diversity of Korean films, undermining the competitiveness of the whole industry.