Algorithms on streaming platforms such as Netflix have profoundly impacted how we view content. This has been a double-edged sword for Korean cinema. On the one hand, for those seeking more Korean content, the algorithms can recommend films and series a subscriber or user wouldn’t otherwise would have discovered. Algorithms are also becoming more sophisticated understanding what viewers want to see through their ratings, preferences, and viewing habits. It’s often marketed as personalization with thumbnails through the platform’s Aesthetic Visual Analysis (AVA) also changing based on the user.  For streamers this keeps their customers on their platforms thereby ensuring their retention rates remain high.

Platforms have provided international viewers with access to Korean films thereby giving the wider content industry with more visibility than ever – the unprecedented success of Squid Game (2021-2025) and the subsequent popularity of other shows like Hellbound (2021-2024), All of Us are Dead (2022), The Glory (2022-2023) and The Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022) are illustrative of this. Films like Okja (2017) and The Call (2020) have also benefited from Netflix’s global reach. Before streaming platforms, Korean films were being released in cinemas and then on physical media but mirroring what has happened with social media and K-pop, technology and streaming has been instrumental in Korean cinema’s growth on the global stage.

Nevertheless, on the other hand, viewers become accustomed to AI curation that also potentially limits their viewing options. Films can get buried and forgotten about given Netflix’s ever-expanding library if they are not picked up by algorithms. It is, therefore, more challenging in many respects to discover Korean films reflecting the wider changes in how we view content that is increasingly more algorithm-driven on all platforms; from YouTube to other social media.

This week we take a look at how Korean films are discovered in this rapidly evolving ecosystem beginning with festivals that remain more important than ever in the discovery of Korean films. We will then turn to cinemas that are still the heart of the film industry and finally to social, new and traditional media that can be persuasive tools in the journey of discovery.

Local Film Festivals

Korea’s three major film festivals Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) have long been crucial in discovering new Korean talent and films.

All three festivals emerged between 1996 and 2000 that was a remarkably transformative time for the industry when almost all of Korea’s leading auteurs made their feature debuts. While all three festivals are different, they all remain dedicated to showcasing Korean films and searching for emerging talent.

Busan’s New Currents and Korean Cinema Today sections have been vital in the discovery of new Korean films. Bleak Night (2011), The Journals of Musan (2011), Han Gong-ju (2014) House of Hummingbird (2019), Moving On (2020) and The Apartment with Two Women (2021) all premiered at the festival. Busan’s position as one of the leading festivals in Asia gives films a platform – it’s a springboard that enables films to travel to other festivals in Europe and beyond underscoring its importance in today’s industry where there is no shortage of content. Such an event also gives films a head start before they are theatrically released having already generated festival buzz.

Jeonju’s status as a leading venue for Korean independent and alternative cinema has meant it has also been a key event in the festival calendar. Its Jeonju Cinema Projects such as The First Lap (2017) have been successful discoveries on the festival circuit, and it has also premiered titles including the KAFA film Aloners (2021) directed by Hong Sung-eun along with her sophomore feature Some Like it Cold (2025).

BIFAN as an unmissable event for Korean genre fans is also important in discovering new films. Taking place in the oppressively hot and humid month of July – a popular time for horror films – it has positioned itself as one of the premier events for Korean genre cinema. Its recent discoveries include The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (2023) directed by Park Syeyoung that later competed at the Sitges Film Festival, and Berlin Critics’ Week. Park continues to impress as a rising talent in the industry – his Korea, Germany and Qatar co-production The Fin (2025) premieres in Locarno in August together with his short film The Masked Monster (2024).

Overseas Festivals

As The Fin demonstrates, the role festivals in Europe, North America and further afield play in discovering Korean films is an important one. Cannes as one of the most prestigious festivals in the world has invited many of the Korean films that have broken out internationally – Old Boy (2003), The Host (2006), Poetry (2010), Train to Busan (2016), The Wailing (2016), The Handmaiden (2016), Parasite (2019) and Decision to Leave (2022). Such titles have served as a gateway into Korean cinema for fans, programmers and critics alike. This is unlikely to change even in the era of AI curation.  

Berlinale has been a champion of Korean cinema for decades screening The Coachman in 1961. It also programed the films of Kim Ki-young in 1998 as a retrospective of his work before Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho who have been influenced by his films became famous.

Similarly, IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam) that invited Bong Joon Ho’s feature debut Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) is a leading event in discovering Korean films on the festival circuit giving them much needed exposure in what is a crowded ecosystem. Indeed, many other festivals like Toronto, Sitges and Udine Far East Film Festival continue to invite Korean films providing them with a much-needed platform.

Multiplexes and Independent Cinemas

Although films and series on streaming platforms can make a cultural impact as seen with Squid Game and KPop Demon Hunters (2025) that turned into global sensations, it is often on release in cinemas where films generate the most discussion. The exclusivity of a cinema release combined with the marketing campaign that aims to pull in viewers helps fuel curiosity. With the right film – this now appears to be more medium sized budget fare like Noise (2025) as opposed to blockbusters – it can lure audiences into theaters to discover a new film. This was evident in 2023 with the majority of titles breaking even budgeted under 10 billion won with films like Handsome Guys (2024), Pilot (2023) and Citizen of a Kind (2024).

It's not just commercial films, independent features are released in theatres and while they don’t get as much visibility, they can break out as audiences explore some of the new young voices in Korean cinema. Oh Jung-min’s House of the Seasons (2024) and Lee Mirang’s Concerning My Daughter (2024) accumulated 33,406 and 21,859 admissions, respectively, after they premiered in Busan in 2023.

Korea’s independent cinemas such as the Busan Cinema Center, MFAC cinema (Myung Films), Seoul’s Emu Cinema also offer cinephiles and viewers an opportunity to discover not just emerging talent but older films as well. The Korean Film Archive’s Cinemateque in Seoul’s Digital Media City curates regular retrospectives that recently included one on Yu Hyun-mok - one of Korea’s leading filmmakers of the 1960s. It also held a 20^th Anniversary Special screening of The Aggressives (2005) by Jeong Jae-un.

Social Media, New and Traditional Media 

Each film from the beginning of pre-production through to its release embarks on a journey. How it is discovered by audiences depends on various factors but social media along with new and more traditional media can play a decisive role.

Social media, especially, has been crucial as seen with Parasite (2019) during the awards race generating significant amounts of momentum on platforms like Twitter and Instagram leading to its historic night at the Oscars as well as people going out to the cinema to see the film themselves. The horror film Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) turned into a hit after young people posted about the film on social media.

Posts on social media also became a trend following the release of 12.12: The Day (2023). Dubbed the “anger challenge” viewers uploaded pictures of their smartwatches showing their heartrates before, during and after viewing the film. Many viewers became incensed while watching the feature, which depicts what happened in the lead up to the military coup staged by Chun Doo-hwan in 1979.

Audiences now consume much of their news content on social media with 51 percent of South Koreans saying they use YouTube as a news source according to Digital News Report in 2024 by the Korea Research Foundation. This is the highest among the 47 countries surveyed and higher than the 31 percent global average making it challenging to market a film using traditional media. PR strategies, thus, for new films inevitably focus on social media, short-form videos that are themselves driven by algorithms to ensure they are discovered by audiences.

Still, the role of new and traditional media remains important in giving audiences exposure to commercial and independent titles as they hit cinemas. Films now are sometimes announced further in advance compared to before the pandemic to help get the word out, especially high-profile Korean films. Equally, coverage at film festivals both in Korea and overseas through trade publications and news outlets helps introduce features to audiences and to those in the industry ahead of their rollouts.  It is, however, true that many outlets that used to rely on traditional media have pivoted towards new media and social media through podcasts, webzines and YouTube.

There is, indeed, plenty of material available in English – including here on KoBiz - that can help guide viewers in locating new and older films but to take advantage of it we sometimes have to look beyond the algorithms.
 

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic