IU and Park Bo-gum Nominated for Top Honors at Korea Drama Awards—Will When Life Gives You Tangerines Magic Continue?

The 16th Korea Drama Awards is officially kicking off voting to determine this year’s grand prize winners.

According to the Korea Drama Festival Organizing Committee, which hosts the 2025 Korea Drama Festival (KDF), voting for the 16th Korea Drama Awards will take place from August 28 at 12:00 p.m. KST to September 22 at 11:59 p.m. KST. Fans can cast their votes through the interactive fandom apps Celeb Champ and My One Pick.

The 16th Korea Drama Awards will honor winners in seven categories—including Best New Actor/Actress, Best Drama, Excellence Award (Actor/Actress), and Top Excellence Award (Actor/Actress)—with source data provided by Flexon. The awards will recognize 92 dramas, actors, and production teams that aired on Korea’s major networks, cable, general programming channels, and OTT platforms over the past year. For more details, fans can check CelebChamp and My1Pick.

Nominees in each category were fairly selected by a panel of judges and the organizing committee. The final winners will be determined by a combination of fan votes (10% via CelebChamp and My1Pick) and the judges’ evaluation (90%).

In the Best New Actor category, male nominees include Kang Yoo-seok (Resident Playbook, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Law and the City), Kim Min-kyu (Bitch x Rich 2), Ryeoun (Namib, A History of a Losers, Weak Hero Class 2), Bae Na-ra (Weak Hero Class 2, Tastefully Yours), Choo Young-woo (The Tale of Lady Ok, Head over Heels), and Heo Nam-jun (When the Phone Rings, When the Stars Gossip). For Best New Actress, the competition features Kim Eun-bi (Our Movie), Roh Jeong-eui (Weak Hero Class 2, Crushology 101), Shin Si-ah (Resident Playbook), Chung Soo-bin (Friendly Rivalry), Chae Won-bin (Doubt), and Hong Hwa-yeon (Buried Hearts, Tastefully Yours, I Am a Running Mate).

The Best Drama category is stacked with 12 titles that made viewers laugh and cry throughout the year: Good Boy, The Haunted Palace, Love Scout, Tastefully Yours, Our Unwritten Seoul, Buried Hearts, Doubt, Resident Playbook, The Tale of Lady Ok, Our Movie, When the Phone Rings, and When Life Gives You Tangerines.


The Excellence Award nominees are equally impressive. For the male category: Park Jin-young (Weak Hero Class 2, Our Unwritten Seoul), Lee Jun-young (Melo Movie, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Weak Hero Class 2, Pump Up the Healthy Love), Lee Hyun-wook (Shark: The Storm, The Queen Who Crowns), Park Ji-hoon (Weak Hero Class 2), Jung Jun-won (Resident Playbook), and Choi Woo-shik (Melo Movie) are all in the running. On the women’s side, Kim So-hyun (Good Boy), Kim Ji-yeon (The Haunted Palace), Go Youn-jung (Resident Playbook), Lee Hye-ri (Friendly Rivalry), Cha Joo-young (The Queen Who Crowns), and Han Ji-eun (When the Stars Gossip, Study Group) will compete for the coveted title.

The Top Excellence Award (Best Actor/Actress) category is especially fierce. In the male division, Ahn Jae-wook, who led For Eagle Brothers to a peak rating of 21.9% despite the overall drop in viewership due to the rise of OTT platforms, stands out. Other nominees include Kang Ha-neul (Squid Game Season 2, Squid Game Season 3, Tastefully Yours), Park Bo-gum (When Life Gives You Tangerines, Good Boy), Park Hyung-sik (Buried Hearts, Twelve), and Yoo Yeon-seok (When the Phone Rings). In the female division, Park Bo-young (Our Unwritten Seoul), Lee Se-young (What Comes After Love, Motel California), IU (Lee Ji-eun, When Life Gives You Tangerines), Lim Ji-yeon (The Tale of Lady Ok), Chae Soo-bin (When the Phone Rings), and Han Ji-min (Heavenly Ever After, Love Scout) are all nominated.

Meanwhile, the KDF will run from October 10 to 19 at the Gyeongsangnam-do Culture and Arts Center and along the Namgang Riverside. In addition to the 16th Korea Drama Awards, the festival will feature a variety of programs, including drama storytelling (International Video Forum), K-Drama History, Drama Script, KDF Promotion Zone, and KDF Music Festa.

The KDF, hosted by the Korea Drama Festival Organizing Committee and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, and Jinju City, is Korea’s first-ever drama festival. The event aims to promote the growth of the broadcasting video industry and the continued global success of Korean dramas.

Photo Credit: Xportsnews, Korea Drama Festival Organizing Committee
 

This article is a translated version of the original Korean article published by Xportsnews, originally written by Jeong Mingyeong. This article was translated from Korean using AI-assisted tools and human review to deliver an accurate and culturally appropriate version for international readers.