Korean Film ‘Space Sweepers’ Nominated For A 2022 Hugo Award

The Korean film Space Sweepers, starring Song Joong-ki and Kim Tae-Ri, has been nominated for the 2022 Hugo Awards, an award presented for science fiction or fantasy works.

The film, written and directed by Jo Sung-hee, is among the six candidates in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. It will compete with Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi film Dune, Disney’s Encanto, David Lowery’s The Green Knight, Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and WandaVision.

The category honors theatrical films, television episodes or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Previous winners include Game of Thrones (season one), Gravity and The Martian.

Space Sweepers is a Netflix original and the first Korean work to be nominated by the Hugo Awards since the awards were launched in 1953.

The film features a group of space scavengers who hunt for debris to make money. It is set in the year 2092 in a fictional universe where Earth has nearly been destroyed by pollution and the elite live on a new habitable planet. The seemingly jaded, reckless crew trawls outer space searching for debris that at best will earn them a subsistence living and could likely kill them.

In a previous Forbes article, the director said that what interested him most about the premise was the speed.

“Because these discarded objects are moving faster than bullets, they destroy anything they come in contact with,” said Jo. Debris drifting through space was a fascinating topic for me. From research I learned that various animated films and games have already dealt with this subject matter. I was particularly influenced by the 1995 sci-fi film Memories that featured a crew salvaging space debris. So I started working on the script for a story reinterpreted for Korean audiences.”

The film, which also starred Jin Seon-kyu and Yoo Hae-jin, debuted at No. 1 on Netflix in at least 16 countries, reaching more than 26 million household viewers during the first 28 days of its release.

The awards ceremony will take place on Sept. 4, 2022 in Chicago.