Lee Chang-dong returns to competition in Venice after twenty-four years

On September 5 at 7 pm local time, the 83rd International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art will hold the world premiere of ‘가능한 사랑’ — ‘Possible Love’ — by Lee Chang-dong. The film had been announced in the Competition’s official selection on July 23, 2026, when the Exhibition released the twenty titles in the race, as reported by Munhwa Ilbo.

The two temporal gaps accompanying this screening are both long. The first concerns the festival: Lee had not been in Competition at Venice since 2002, when ‘Oasis’ won five awards at the 59th festival, including the prize for direction and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor or Actress to Moon So-ri. The second concerns his filmography: this is his first feature film after ‘Burning’ in 2018, eight years later.

The film and its production

‘Possible Love’ is a Netflix production, as indicated by the statement from the platform’s Korean subsidiary reported by Financial News. The cast includes Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Jo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong.

The plot follows two couples who cross paths around the making of a documentary: on one side a laid-off worker with his wife, on the other a documentary filmmaker with her husband. The intersection between those who film and those who are filmed is thus the declared narrative device.

The film is also expected at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.

A growing Korean presence

‘Possible Love’ is the twelfth Korean film admitted to Competition at Venice, in a series that includes ‘Lady Vengeance’ (2005), ‘Pieta’ (2012) and Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ (2025). For Korea, it is the second consecutive year in competition: a continuity that, in a festival where national selections fluctuate from year to year, is not trivial.

According to the report by Herald Business, which also draws on Yonhap and AFP materials, Reuters news agency read the 2026 edition as a retreat by major studio productions in favor of independent and auteur cinema: “This year Hollywood took a step back at the Venice Film Festival” (transl. from Korean). This is a journalistic assessment of the selection’s composition, not a piece of data.

The rest of the Lido

The festival’s third day, Friday September 4, brought to Competition ‘15/18 (A Place to Heal)’ by Cédric Kahn — set in a community for young people with psychiatric disorders, with Zoé Monpart, Malou Khebizi and Kenji Peyran in the cast alongside Kahn himself — and ‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ with Geoffrey Rush. Out of competition, ‘The Basics of Philosophy’ by Paul Schrader was screened, with Jack Huston and Bill Pullman.

In the Orizzonti section came ‘La Maison Du Vent’ by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu and ‘La città dei vivi’ by Edoardo Gabbriellini; at the Giornate degli Autori, ‘Balcanica’ by Nicola Sorcinelli entered the competition, with Matilda De Angelis, about the journey of two Afghan musicians in flight. The program also included a masterclass with Chloé Zhao and the screening of ‘Queer Edward II’ by Theo Rollason. The program is the official one of the Biennale, as reported by ANSA and by Sky TG24.

What we do not know

We do not know the film’s running time, nor the date of its release on the platform. We do not know whether or when it will reach theaters, in Korea or elsewhere. The opening ceremony of the 83rd Exhibition is documented by Ten Asia, but the awards schedule does not appear in the material available: the only certain date related to this film is that of today’s screening at the Lido.