Extraordinary Attorney Woo tops 59th Baeksang Arts Awards nominations

It’s award season again in South Korea. And the prestigious 59th Baeksang Arts Awards just dropped its highly anticipated list of nominations for 2023.

The annual awards ceremony honours the best in both South Korean drama and film. It is slated to be held on 28 Apr (Fri) at Paradise City, a resort complex in Incheon.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo in 10 nominations

Extraordinary Attorney Woo was one of the highly raved drama series last year for its tactful portrayal of people with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is a legal series which circles around the life of Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), a female rookie attorney with autism.

It leads the awards with ten nominations including Best Drama, Director and Actress.

This is actually Park’s second Best Actress nomination in recent years. She was recently nominated last year for her portrayal of crown prince Lee Hwi in The King’s Affection (2021).

She will be facing stiff competition from the seasoned Kim Hye-soo (Under the Queen’s Umbrella) and fellow fan-favourite, Song Hye-kyo (The Glory). Song’s last nomination came in 2016 for Descendants of the Sun, but she has never won in the category.

The Glory is also a force to be reckoned with

The second part of the highly-rated Netflix revenge thriller was just released last month. And it has already received rave reviews from both critics and audiences worldwide.

If Moon Dong-eun’s (played by Song) plot was anything to go by, The Glory would definitely be one to watch out for, as the drama trails closely behind with nine nominations.

Slice of life drama – My Liberation Notes is also a dark horse to keep a lookout for. It has seven nominations, including those for both its leads Son Suk-ku and Kim Ji-won. The duo were nominated for the first time. 

The highest rated Korean drama of 2022 – Reborn Rich also has a fair share in this year’s nominations. It made its way into the Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress categories for Lee Sung-min, Kim Do-hyun and Kim Shin-rok respectively.

However, their co-star and main protagonist of the show – Jin Do-jun, played by Song Joong-ki, misses out.

TikTok will broadcast the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards live. Fans will soon find out who will be the biggest winner from the award show. And who will take home the coveted daesang (Grand Prize Award).

For a summarised list of nominations, see below. For the full list, see here.

Best Drama

Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Little Women
My Liberation Diary
Our Blues
The Glory

Best Actor

Choi Min-sik (Big Bet)
Jung Kyung-ho (Crash Course in Romance)
Lee Byung-hun (Our Blues)
Lee Sung-min (Reborn Rich)
Son Suk-ku (My Liberation Notes)

Best Actress

Kim Hye-soo (Under the Queen’s Umbrella)
Kim Ji-won (My Liberation Notes)
Park Eun-bin (Extraordinary Attorney Woo)
Song Hye-kyo (The Glory)
Suzy (Anna)

Best Supporting Actor

Jo Woo-jin for (Narco-Saints)
Kang Ki-young (Extraordinary Attorney Woo)
Kim Do-hyun (Reborn Rich)
Kim Jun-han (Anna)
Park Sung-hoon (The Glory)

Best Supporting Actress

Jung Eun-chae (Anna)
Kim Shin-rok (Reborn Rich)
Lee El  (My Liberation Notes)
Lim Ji-yeon (The Glory)
Yeom Hye-ran (The Glory)