Seoul International Drama Awards 2026
The 2026 edition of the awards show where global series and K-dramas compete on the same stage. A record 352 entries from 46 countries came in, and the top Golden Bird Prize went to a writer for the first time: Kim Eun-sook.
The Seoul International Drama Awards launched in 2006, run by the Korean Broadcasters Association and backed by KBS, MBC, SBS, EBS, the culture ministry and the city of Seoul. Any show from any country that aired between May of the previous year and April of the current one can enter. There's an International Competition where series from around the world go head to head, plus a separate K-Drama section. The big three networks take turns broadcasting it. If the Baeksang Arts Awards are Korea's home party, this one is where Hallyu gets measured against everything else on TV worldwide.
2026 came in big. 352 entries from 46 countries, the most in the show's 20-year run. The International Competition grand prize went to a Norwegian series, but Korea still had a good night: Ryu Seung-ryong won Best Actor in the International Competition, up against foreign productions, and Koo Kyo-hwan took Best Actor in the K-Drama section. Lim Ji-yeon also landed on the list of acting winners.
The real headline, though, was the Golden Bird Prize. The organizers pick it themselves, regardless of entries, and it's always gone to actors or directors: Choi Min-sik in 2023, Park Chan-wook in 2024, Ben Stiller in 2025. This year a writer got it for the first time. That's Kim Eun-sook, the pen behind Secret Garden, Descendants of the Sun, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and The Glory. Her lines turn into memes and her shows turn into pan-Asian trends, so the win read as a moment where the writer finally gets treated as the face of the drama. She'd already won a Hallyu special writing award here in 2011, which makes this a 15-year glow-up.
Scroll through recent winners and it's clear why K-drama fans keep an eye on this show. In 2025 the K-Drama section split Best Series between When Life Gives You Tangerines and The Trauma Code, with acting wins for IU and Ju Ji-hoon. That same year, JISOO and Kim Seon-ho picked up Asia Star awards. In 2024, Moving and Queen of Tears won Best Series, and Song Kang-ho took Best Actor in the International Competition. There's even an idol actor award decided 100% by fan votes, which went to Byeon Woo-seok of Lovely Runner in 2024.
It hasn't all been smooth. In 2023, two international entries drew accusations of pushing China's Northeast Project version of history, and that year's long-form winner got hit with claims that it copied Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. More global entries means tougher calls for the judges. Still, hitting its 20th anniversary in 2026 with a record entry count and the first-ever writer Golden Bird shows how far the show has come.