TVING’s “Bargain” has become the first Korean drama to win at the Cannes International Series Festival!
The Cannes International Series Festival, also called the Canneseries, is an annual international television festival held in France. At this year’s closing ceremony held earlier this week, TVING’s original series “Bargain” starring Jin Sun Kyu and Jeon Jong Seo won the award for Best Screenplay. This achievement makes “Bargain” the first-ever Korean drama and OTT (over-the-top) original series to win at the Canneseries.
Based on a 2015 short film of the same name, “Bargain” is a thriller about a dangerous bargain between Noh Hyung Soo (Jin Sun Kyu) and Park Joo Young (Jeon Jong Seo) that grows into a bigger problem when the building they’re in gets hit by a major earthquake.
“Bargain” is co-written by Choi Byung Yoon, Kwak Jae Min, and director Jeon Woo Sung. In his acceptance speech, Jeon Woo Sung shared, “‘Bargain’ is a project with an incredibly unique concept, so it’s an honor to be recognized and invited. Thank you so much for giving us an award on top of that.” He then exclaimed, “Byung Yoon! Jae Min! We did it!”
This series is the only Korean content to have been invited to the competition at this year’s Canneseries. On April 16, “Bargain” held an official screening at the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière in Cannes, France, where the audience of over 2,300 gave a three-minute-long standing ovation. Foreign media outlets like French newspaper Le Figaro praised the series’ unconventional concept, composition, villains, and much more.
A representative from TVING commented, “We are incredibly happy to be able to continue the Korean content syndrome as TVING’s original series ‘Bargain’ achieves the pleasure of becoming the first Korean OTT [series] and drama to win a Canneseries award. In the future too, we will do our best to discover content that delivers fun and touching emotion to people all around the world and spread the word far and wide of TVING’s content’s competitiveness.”
“Bargain” was first released via TVING last October and will be released worldwide on Paramount+ this summer.
Source: Soompi