EU-LONDON: MOVIE – The Handmaiden is first South Korean film to receive British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) nomination

KUALA LUMPUR: Award-winning South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s psychological thriller The Handmaiden has been nominated for best non-English movie at the 2018 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA).

According to Yonhap News, this marks a first for a South Korean film to receive a nomination for the prestigious annual awards ceremony that recognises the best works in the global film industry.

The Handmaiden is a contender in the Best Film Not In The English Language category, whose other nominees are Elle, Loveless, The Salesman and First They Killed My Father.

Based on Welsh writer Sarah Waters’ Victorian lesbian crime novel Fingersmith, The Handmaiden revolves around a woman who is hired as the handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but she is secretly involved in a plot to con the latter.

A hit among film critics and selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it stars Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo and Cho Jin-woong.

It also took home Best Foreign Film at various awards ceremonies including Saturn Awards and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

The 2018 BAFTA awards ceremony, hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, will be held on Feb 18 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.