he first ever non-face-to-face awards ceremony is 6 days away!

What are the 3 points to watch for when enjoying the 15th Seoul International Drama Awards?

Seoul, South Korea (September 9, 2020) – The results of the Seoul International Drama Awards 2020(SDA), which selects popular dramas from all over the world, will be unveiled in 6 days.

The Seoul International Drama Awards Organizing Committee (Chairman Sung-jae Park) recently announced that the awards ceremony will be non-face-to-face as there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases nationwide. It was also announced that the audience, presenters and winners will not be attending the awards ceremony.

The organizing committee said “SDA is a venue where fans, actors and officials from around the world who enjoy TV dramas, but this year we made many considerations regarding the direction of the production of the awards ceremony due to the spike in COVID-19 cases. Even though we all will not be able to enjoy the awards ceremony under one roof, we hope that this awards ceremony, which is planned with new technology and everyone’s safety as a top priority, will become a new type of culture event in pandemic by connecting with others through new technology and shine a light on Korean culture.”

The organizing committee presented 3 interesting points for the SDA 2020 awards ceremony.

◆ ‘Smart Ceremony’, MCs appear with Autonomous Shuttle and audiences are connected with AR platform

SDA 2020 will be held as a smart awards ceremony that connects participants by utilizing advanced IT technologies. MCs in this year's awards ceremony are actors Su-ro Kim, Jin-young of K-Pop group GOT7 and MBC announcer Ji-min Park. The MCs will appear with Autonomous Shuttle at the awards ceremony which will be held with partitions and MC seats to maintain a safe distance. The awards ceremony is striving to have top-notch safety as it will be a non-face-to-face event.

Also, the audiences at home will be invited to the awards ceremony with AR (Augmented Reality) technology. A select number of pre-determined viewers will be able to access the AR online platform and enjoy the awards ceremony in a more lively fashion. In the meantime, presenters will announce the dramas and winners who will share their acceptance speeches via pre-recording. The organizing committee said that it plans to deliver souvenirs and personal hygiene kits individually along with trophies to international and domestic winners.

◆ Rush of K-Drama, forecasting a heated competition

The rush of Korean dramas is remarkable this year. For SDA 2020, 9 Korean dramas were nominated, showing a remarkable increase compared to only 2 nominated Korean dramas last year. The competition between mini-series dramas is one of the hottest trending topics. Korean dramas, which have been highly acclaimed and have led the new Korean wave overseas, will compete for the award. The nominated mini-series include tvN <Crash Landing on You>, JTBC <Itaewon Class>, KBS <When the Camellia Blooms> and SBS <Hot Stove League>. Also, for the short-form which had been added to the award category for the first time this year, 3 Korean dramas <I Have 3 Boyfri3nds>, <Rumor>, <XX> are nominated. Moreover, △Best Screenwriter, △Best Actor and △Best Actress had three Korean dramas nominated each, proving the excellence of K-Dramas. Fans are highly anticipating who will have the honor of the Seoul International Drama Awards 2020, showing outstanding artistry, originality and popularity.

◆ Only in SDA 2020 to enjoy fantastic collaboration of K-Culture!

The organizing committee will present a colorful line-up of celebratory performances based on Hallyu (Korean Wave) contents, which is well-acclaimed around the world. It is an effort to ice the swelling of the current situation of not being able to meet the stars of the drama at the awards ceremony.

△Hot K-Pop icon, THE BOYZ, △New queen of K-OST, Punch △Heroine of K-Trot, Ga-in Song and ‘Baraji’, a Korean traditional music band will hold celebratory performances. Also, △Duet stage of ALi and Solji starred in K-Variety MBC ‘The Masked Singer’, △Performance of ALiENZ dance team with K-Zombie contents.

In addition, △actor So-won Gal, Seol Kim, Seok-hyun Wang, the future of K-Drama, prepared a performance with Seung-chul Lee’s song ‘Amateur’, △Pride of K-Bboy, Plasma Korea, △K-Sports pioneer, K-tigers will heat up the awards ceremony with fantastic performances.

The celebratory performances will be held under a strict social distance policy. The performers and on-site staff will not be allowed to gather at any place at the same time as safety is a top priority. Also, only a few key personnel will present at a specific time on a team by team basis.

The SDA 2020 awards ceremony will be aired on MBC at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15. The awards ceremony will also be broadcasted on ‘wavve’ in South Korea while international fans can watch the recording on MBC drama's official YouTube channel.

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