'Concrete Utopia' selected as S. Korea's Oscar entry

Movies 08:48 August 18, 2023

SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- Korean disaster thriller "Concrete Utopia" will represent South Korea at next year's Academy Awards, its distributor said Friday.

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has chosen the film as the country's entry for the best international feature film category of the 96th Academy Awards, according to Lotte Entertainment.

Directed by Eom Tae-hwa, the apocalyptic movie follows the residents of the only apartment building that survived a catastrophic earthquake in Seoul as they fight for their lives. It stars Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young.

The council said the film was chosen as South Korea's entry for the Oscars as it expertly explores the topic of class conflict, the main theme of Bong Joon-ho's film "Parasite," which won best picture, best director, best original screenplay and the best international feature film at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020.

"The film features ordinary people struggling to survive in apartments, the most representative Korean symbol of wealth," the review committee said.

"Concrete Utopia" has drawn over 2.2 million admissions since its release on Aug. 9.

The Oscar's non-English movie section requires each country to submit a single film as their official representative.

The 96th Academy Awards are slated for March next year.