Park Ji-hoon Earns Blue Dragon Nomination After ‘The King’s Warden’ Draws 16 Million Moviegoers

The actor joins the Best New Actor race as Hope leads the 47th Blue Dragon Film Awards with 10 nominations ahead of the November 25 ceremony.

Park Ji-hoon’s breakthrough film year has brought him to the Blue Dragon Film Awards, where he will compete for Best New Actor following the enormous success of The King’s Warden. The historical drama, which has attracted more than 16 million admissions according to the nomination announcement, earned seven nominations overall, placing its cast and director among the contenders at one of Korean cinema’s major annual ceremonies.

The 47th Blue Dragon Film Awards announced its nominees on October 28, setting up a competition that brings together major box-office performers, established filmmakers and emerging screen talent. While Park’s nomination gives followers of his acting career a particular reason to watch, Na Hong-jin’s Hope enters the ceremony with the largest number of nominations, followed by Possible Love and The King’s Warden.

Park Ji-hoon Joins a Competitive New Actor Race

Park is nominated for his performance in The King’s Warden, which the announcement describes as the second-most-attended film in Korean box-office history. Its commercial success gives his nomination a substantial audience connection, although the award itself will be decided through the ceremony’s judging process rather than admissions alone.

His fellow Best New Actor nominees are Moon Sang-min for Pavane, Moon Ji-hoon for Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, Lee Jong-won for 살목지 and Joo Min-hyung for 충충충. The category therefore places Park alongside performers arriving through different projects, with the final result still open ahead of the November ceremony.

The King’s Warden is also competing for Best Film and Best Director for Jang Hang-jun, while Yoo Hae-jin is nominated for Best Actor and Jeon Mi-do for Best Supporting Actress. Those nominations spread recognition across the film’s direction and performances, giving it several opportunities to convert its audience success into awards.

‘Hope’ Leads With 10 Nominations

Na Hong-jin’s Hope has the broadest presence on this year’s shortlist, receiving nominations in 10 categories, including Best Film and Best Director. Its acting nominations include Zo In-sung for Best Actor, Eum Moon-suk for Best Supporting Actor and Jung Ho-yeon for Best New Actress, while additional nominations cover cinematography and lighting, music, production design, editing and technical achievement.

Possible Love follows with eight nominations and a particularly strong showing across the acting categories. Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon are nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, while Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong compete in the supporting categories, giving the film a nominee in each of the four principal acting races.

Elsewhere, Colony earned six nominations, while 세계의 주인 and The Assassin(s) received five each. The Best Film lineup consists of those three titles alongside The King’s Warden and Hope, with their filmmakers also facing one another in the Best Director category.

Major Acting Categories Bring Together Familiar Names

The Best Actor race pits Yoo Hae-jin against Koo Kyo-hwan for 만약에 우리, Park Hae-il for The Assassin(s), Sul Kyung-gu for Possible Love and Zo In-sung for Hope. Best Actress nominees include Ko A-sung for Pavane, Mun Ka-young for 만약에 우리, Shin Min-a for 눈동자, Lee Jung-eun for 경주기행 and Jeon Do-yeon for Possible Love.

The supporting categories offer further points of interest, including Lee Min-ho’s nomination for The Assassin(s) and Koo Kyo-hwan’s nomination for Colony. Zo In-sung appears in two different acting races through separate films, competing for his leading performance in Hope and his supporting performance in Possible Love.

For Best New Actress, Jung Ho-yeon faces Kim Si-a for 여름의 카메라, Seo Su-bin for 세계의 주인, Lee Yeon for 경주기행 and Jang Da-a for 살목지. Alongside the new-actor category, that lineup gives the ceremony another opportunity to recognize performers building their film careers.

Public Voting Begins November 2

The nominees were selected through a process incorporating industry-expert voting and an initial online vote conducted from October 13 to 25. The announcement covers 15 categories, spanning the leading film and performance awards as well as writing, music, editing and other production disciplines.

A further public vote opens November 2 through the Celeb Champ mobile app, covering 16 categories including the Chung Jung One Popular Star Award. According to the announcement, the combined public-voting result carries the same weight as one professional judge’s vote, giving audiences a role in the outcome without making the awards solely a popularity contest.

The winners will be announced on November 25 at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, with the ceremony scheduled for broadcast on KBS2. For Park Ji-hoon, the evening offers the possibility of a major film-award milestone after a year already defined by the extraordinary audience reach of The King’s Warden.

Editor’s Note: The King’s Warden follows the deposed young king Yi Hong-wi, better known as King Danjong, and village head Eom Heung-do during the king’s exile. The Korean Film Archive’s synopsis places their relationship at the center of the story, providing context for the film’s performances beyond its box-office figures. Some lesser-known titles above remain in Korean to avoid presenting unverified English translations as official release titles.