Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love' Premieres at Venice — SkimNews
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- Lee Chang-dong directs "Possible Love," his seventh feature and first in eight years, premiering in competition for the Golden Lion at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival before screening at Toronto.
- "Possible Love" is loosely adapted from a segment of Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Dekalog," the second 2026 film drawn from that work after Asghar Farhadi's Cannes-premiering "Parallel Lives."
- The film stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong, with Lee co-writing the screenplay alongside Oh Jung-mi; the plot follows two married couples whose lives intersect while making a documentary.
- South Korea has selected "Possible Love" as its official submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards.
- Netflix will release the film in select theaters on October 23 and begin streaming it on November 6, following its Venice and Toronto festival runs.
- Lee told IndieWire in 2024 that his films share a guiding concern: "the struggle is more important than the pain itself," a thread cinephiles will weigh against this new entry in his six-film-since-1997 filmography.
Why it matters: Lee has directed just six features across nearly three decades, making an eight-year gap followed by simultaneous Venice competition, Korea's Oscar submission, and a Netflix release an unusually concentrated burst of prestige for an auteur of his stature — and a major moment for Korean cinema's global awards positioning.
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