This year’s Seoul International Drama Awards will go ahead without any audience, including the nominees, award presenters and guests.

In accordance with the government’s “Level 2.5” social distancing measure currently placed over the Seoul area, the 15th edition of the television drama awards will be taking a different format, the event’s organizing committee announced Thursday.

The organizers will personally be delivering the trophies to both the local and overseas winners, and the winners will share their acceptance speeches through video messages.

Celebratory performances will take place under strict social distancing and quarantine policies. Ensuring none of the performers and staff members are together in one place at the same time, people allowed onsite will be kept to a minimum, based on strictly planned out schedules, the organizers assured.

The ceremony, initially scheduled to take place with only the winners and presenters on Sept. 10, has been pushed back five days following the recent spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Seoul and other areas.

The organizers will air a pre-recorded version of the completely non-face-to-face ceremony on MBC at 3 p.m. on Sept. 15. The ceremony can also be watched in Korea through the mobile streaming platform Wavve and from overseas through MBC Drama’s official YouTube channel.

The organizing committee earlier announced that, among a total of 212 television dramas from 41 countries, 28 sets and 26 individuals have been nominated for the award. According to the committee, concise yet intense short-forms, three-dimensional female characters and the rapid growth of K-dramas are the three key trends of the global drama industry this year.



By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)