“I think we can work through this quickly.”
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young said on the 14th that the government, the film industry and the Korean Film Council should form a public-private consultative body to address pending issues, stressing the need for swift action.
Speaking at a meeting with filmmakers in Seoul’s Jung District on supplementary budget planning for the film sector, Choi said there were areas that also required talks with theaters and that he hoped discussions would move forward.
The meeting was held to hear industry views on issues including scrapping efforts to legislate a holdback, introducing limits on screen concentration, expanding minimum screening days and increasing policy funds. Attendees included Kim Byeong-in, head of the Korea Scenario Writers Association; Kim Seung-beom, CEO of Niners Entertainment; Baek Jae-ho, head of the Korean Independent Film Association; and director Yang Woo-seok.
Earlier, a coalition of 13 major film groups held a news conference saying Korea’s film industry faced a structural crisis and calling for a more active government role, including institutional changes. The groups voiced clear opposition to legislating a “holdback” that would allow films to be released on follow-on platforms such as OTT services only six months after their theatrical run ends. Saying the holdback would amount to a near blackout, they called instead for a system to limit excessive allocation of screens to specific films.
Choi noted differing views within the industry and said more discussion was needed. “On holdbacks, there are a variety of opinions even within the film industry,” he said, adding that it did not appear to be an issue to be discussed separately by each side. He said proposals under discussion in the National Assembly were not finalized.
“On the big principles, the direction and perspective of the film industry and the government are not different,” Choi said. “What matters is how we turn specific issues into workable measures.”
The ministry said it secured a major increase in funding for the film industry through the first supplementary budget for 2026. The package includes 26 billion won for mid-budget film production, 4.5 billion won for independent and art film production, 8 billion won for advanced production support for Korean films, and 27.1 billion won to promote moviegoing, for a total of 65.6 billion won.
Choi said he pushed the plan with a sense of crisis that “if film collapses, K-culture collapses,” and with the aim of minimizing the scale of damage from the war in the Middle East. He said the government budget allocated to the film sector for 2026 was 127.9 billion won, and the supplementary budget for the sector was 65.6 billion won.
He said support was included for two mid-budget films with production costs of 10 billion to 15 billion won, and that 18 additional films in the 2 billion to 10 billion won range would be designated. Considering the original plan to support 20 mid-budget films, he said, the total support would cover 40 films.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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