Park Song-yeol's 'Beyond Love's Horizon' wins KBS Independent Film Award, 10 million won

“Beyond Love's Horizon,” directed by Park Song-yeol and produced by SARANGHAJA, won the KBS Independent Film Award at the 2026 31st Busan International Film Festival, receiving a prize of 10 million won.

The award was presented at the “Night of Vision” ceremony on Wednesday evening, Oct. 14, the day before the festival closed. KBS established the award to support Korean independent cinema, with all 12 films by Korean newcomers in the festival’s Vision_Korea section eligible for consideration.

The three judges—film critic and author Nam Da-eun, director Shin Yeon-shick and director Lee Ji-won—chose the winner unanimously. Shin’s works include “Uncle Samsik” (2024) and “Seung” (2025), while Lee’s include “Climax” (2026) and “Bigwang” (2026).

In their citation, the judges praised the way the film brings together its subjects’ circumstances and its cinematic form:

“Among the films screened in this year’s Vision section, director Park Song-yeol and actor Won Hyang-ra’s ‘Beyond Love's Horizon’ brings the conditions of life and the form of cinema together with the greatest honesty, precision and strength. After a child is born into the couple’s universe, the film humorously explores, steadfastly observes and ultimately wholeheartedly embraces the changes in their exhausting labor, repetitive daily routines and, above all, their modest ‘horizon of love.’ Without excessive self-pity or the slightest vanity, the married couple, Park Song-yeol and Won Hyang-ra, simply live through the present they have been given together. We offer our wholehearted support for the way they pursue filmmaking alongside life.”

The film is the fourth feature from SARANGHAJA, the production company of director Park and producer Won. It follows a couple becoming parents as the arrival of a new life transforms the daily lives of Tae-young and Ju-mi. Through pregnancy, childbirth and childcare leading up to their child’s first birthday, they become exhausted and unsettled while learning new ways to live with their child.

Having explored labor and capital through everyday scenes, Park broadens his focus here to family and care. The film’s form embraces a life that does not unfold according to plan, asking anew about the meaning of love and creative work through a love that endures awkwardly but firmly.

This is the second KBS Independent Film Award for Park and Won, following their win for “Hot in Day, Cold at Night” in 2021. Discussing the selection of “Beyond Love's Horizon” for the festival, they described it as “a declaration to oneself to ‘keep going,’ a vigorous serenade of love and a film that is a spirited chorus.”

The KBS Independent Film Award plans to continue supporting Korean independent cinema and discovering talented new directors. It aims to find and further promote Korean independent films that draw attention in Korea and reach beyond Asia’s future to audiences worldwide, citing “Maggie,” “Lucky Chan-sil” and “House of the Seasons.”

Films selected for the award are to be broadcast on KBS 1TV’s “Independent Film Theater,” with the aim of bringing independent cinema and viewers into closer contact.

(Photo provided by KBS)

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