
The first Korean work to be honored with the 'Broadcasting Oscars' Free Italia Award
AI-generated summary
Director Jin Jae-woon's 'Song of Trees' is a documentary about the life of an 88-year-old Korean woman who planted one million trees in Nicaragua.
(Busan = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Seong-je = Director Jin Jae-woon's film 'Song of Trees' became the first Korean film to win the main prize in the 2026 Free Italia TV Documentary Competition.
'Song of the Trees' was named the final winner in the 2026 Free Italian TV Documentary Competition hosted by Italian public broadcaster RAI on the 2nd (local time).
Founded in 1948, Free Italia is the most prestigious international broadcasting award in existence and is called the โOscars of the broadcasting world.โ
This year, a total of 226 films were submitted from 83 broadcasting organizations in 52 countries.
'Land of Trees' is a work that records the life of an 88-year-old Korean woman who purchased a huge piece of land more than seven times the size of Yeouido in Nicaragua, Central America, and planted one million trees.
It tells the story of the main character, who majored in biology and biochemistry in the United States and devoted himself to researching cancer and infectious diseases, and after being diagnosed as terminally ill in his mid-60s, planted a forest, saying, "I will give back what I received from the earth and provide oxygen while I live."
Director Jin said, "This is a film that questions how much we have lived without listening to nature," and added, "I am most happy that judges around the world have listened to the slow time and silence of this film."
Meanwhile, prior to winning this award, this work won three awards, including the gold medal in the feature-length documentary category, at the New York Festival.
In Korea, it was selected as Best TV Documentary at the 53rd Korea Broadcasting Awards and as โGood Program of the Monthโ by โโthe Korea Communications Standards Commission.

Plays by famous directors that have become hot topics in Europe and Japan will be premiered one after another in Korea in the second half of the year. At the Seoul International Performing Arts Festival, Portugal's Thiago Rodrรญguez's 'The Distance Between' will have its domestic premiere at the Arko Arts Theater from the 8th to the 10th, and from the 13th to the 15th of next month, Ukasz Tvarkovsky's 'Rosco' from Latvia's Diles Theater will be performed at the LG Arts Center Seoul, and from the 30th to the 1st of next month, 'American Dream' by Japanese playwright Koki Mitani will be performed.

The movie 'In-I in Motion' is a documentary about the six-month process of actress Juliette Binoche and dancer Akram Khan creating a dance play on the theme of love and pain without a script or choreography, and will be released on the 14th.

Singer Kim Jaejoong has been active in both Korea and Japan for over 20 years and emphasized that K-pop is a bridge that connects the two countries. He revealed that understanding the local language and culture was essential to succeed in the Japanese market, and explained that Korean and Japanese entertainment are complementary, filling each other's shortcomings.

Dramas, entertainment shows, and movies that were successful in Korea are being remade into overseas local versions, and format export is becoming a new box office formula for K-content. The Mexican and Italian versions of Netflix's 'Physical: 100' are ranked high among global non-English shows, and various works such as the Japanese and Brazilian versions of 'Transit Love' and the Japanese version of 'Weird Lawyer Woo Young-woo' are being localized and are being aired. There is a trend to lower risks and diversify profit structures through prior verification through global OTD and local production.

BTS held its first South American performance in Bogota, Colombia and received a great response by communicating with local fans in Spanish. V's remarks in Spanish, J-Hope's words of gratitude, and images of fans wearing hanbok were reported in the local media, and the concert was sold out and attended by more than 100,000 people. BTS will then continue their South American tour to Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

โLacrima,โ a hit play from the National Theater of Strasbourg, France, had its Korean premiere at the Seongnam Arts Center. It simultaneously sheds light on the unfair labor of the artisans behind the production of the British royal wedding dress, the logic of capital, and the value of art.