The 61st Baeksang Arts Awards honored the Korean stars of stage and screen across 32 award categories on Monday while also spending a considerable portion of the broadcast honoring the unsung heroes behind the cameras and the stars of the future.

The awards ceremony, which took place on Korea's Children's Day at Coex in southern Seoul on Monday, was attended by some of the biggest names in the entertainment sector spanning film, broadcast and theater.


The two grand prizes, which can go to either a production or an individual, were given to Netflix cooking survival series "Culinary Class Wars" (2024), produced by JTBC's Studio Slam, in the broadcasting sector and cinematographer Hyong Kyung-pyo of "Harbin" (2024) in the film section.

The Best Male Actor in broadcast award was taken by Ju Ji-hoon, who played a maverick surgeon who fights to revive a trauma team in Netflix series "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call." Best Female Actor in broadcast went to Kim Tae-ri, who played gukgeuk (a Korean all-women's theatrical performance) actor Jeong-nyeon by mastering traditional singing and regional dialect in tvN period drama "Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born" (2024).

The Best Male Actor in film went to Cho Jung-seok of "Pilot" for his turn as cheeky comedy character Han Jung-woo, who one day loses his job as a star pilot. The Best Female Actor in film was awarded to Jeon Do-yeon for "Revolver," in which she played former police officer Ha Su-yeong, who plots life-changing revenge.

The Best Drama went to Netflix's "When Life Gives You Tangerines" and Best Film to "Harbin."

The Korea JoongAng Daily covered the entire show live. For the full list of winners, as well as the details from the four-hour ceremony, click here.

For this year's award, works released in Korea between April 1, 2024, and March 31 of this year were reviewed by a panel of 60 experts from the arts and entertainment field, according to the organizing committee.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]