Lee Chang-dong이창동

Lee Chang-dong (이창동) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter and novelist, born in Daegu in 1954. He graduated from Kyungpook National University in 1981, taught Korean at high school, and published his first novel in 1983.¹² He came into film by writing the screenplay for Park Kwang-su's To the Starry Island (1993), on which he also worked as an assistant director.¹ He has directed seven feature films: Green Fish (초록물고기, 1997), Peppermint Candy (박하사탕, 1999), Oasis (오아시스, 2002), Secret Sunshine (밀양, 2007), Poetry (시, 2010), Burning (버닝, 2018) and Possible Love (가능한 사랑, 2026).¹ His first, Green Fish, won Best Film at the 1997 Blue Dragon Film Awards.⁴

Abroad, Lee has three wins on DabPop's count of Korean directors' top prizes at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, the Oscars and the Emmys: the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice in 2002 for Oasis, Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2010 for Poetry, and Venice's Grand Jury Prize in 2026 for Possible Love. Only Bong Joon Ho (5), Park Chan-wook (4) and Hong Sang-soo (4) have more.³ His films have also won prizes for others: Jeon Do-yeon (전도연) won Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 for Secret Sunshine. Burning won the FIPRESCI critics' prize at Cannes in 2018 and became the first Korean film to make the final nine-film shortlist for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.¹

Possible Love, his first film in eight years, stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu (설경구), Zo In-sung (조인성) and Cho Yeo-jeong (조여정) as two married couples whose paths cross over a documentary.⁵⁸ It premiered in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2026, and on September 12 it became the first Korean film to win the festival's Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.⁶⁷ It opened in Korean cinemas on September 23 and comes to Netflix worldwide on November 6, 2026, and it is South Korea's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.⁵⁷ Outside film, Lee served as South Korea's 40th Minister of Culture and Tourism under President Roh Moo-hyun, from February 27, 2003, to June 30, 2004.¹²