HoYeon Jung Won a SAG Award for Squid Game, and Korea’s Blue Dragon Awards Still Call Her a Rookie

Featured photo: HoYeon Jung at the “Hope” photocall at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, May 18, 2026. Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

HoYeon Jung won a Screen Actors Guild Award for “Squid Game,” and on November 25 she’ll sit at the Blue Dragon Film Awards as a nominee for Best New Actress. Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” is her first Korean film. The actress the world honored first went back to the beginning in Korean cinema, right down to getting a new driver’s license for a stick shift.

I’ll be honest: when I saw the line “Best New Actress: Jung Ho-yeon (Hope)” in the nominee list, I smiled as a fan. The woman who made the world cry as Kang Sae-byeok started over from scratch in front of Korean film, and somehow that felt so completely her. The Blue Dragon Film Awards are among Korea’s oldest and most popular film awards; this year’s ceremony is on November 25 at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul (Newsis).

The police officer who doesn’t appear until an hour in

In “Hope,” Jung plays Seong-ae, a police officer in Hopo Port, a harbor village next to the Demilitarized Zone. She charges straight at anyone who crosses the line (JTBC). And Seong-ae doesn’t appear until an hour into the film (Aju Business Daily).

That first appearance drew applause at the Cannes Film Festival. Jung said she was too rushed by her schedule to take it in at the time, but as time passed it became “a big cheer for me as an actor” (Aju Business Daily). That one scene of getting in and out of a car went past 20 takes. “I think he wanted to get everything, from how I perform when I have all my stamina to how I express things on instinct once I’m exhausted” (Aju Business Daily).

“Hope” opened in Korea on July 15 and drew about 4.6 million moviegoers. In November, its first week in France brought in about $800,000, the biggest opening of any Korean film released there this year (Etoday). In Belgium it started on 38 screens with about $64,000, well past the openings of “Decision to Leave” and “Burning” (News Culture). At the Blue Dragon Awards it leads with nominations in 10 categories, including Best Film (Newsis).

• Where to watch: Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Fandango At Home and Plex in the U.S. (JustWatch U.S., checked November 7, 2026). In Korea, it has been available to rent or buy since October 21 on IPTV, cable, Skylife, Coupang Play, Watcha, Wavve, TVING and Apple TV (Topstar News).

Also read: 'I Want to Go Back!': Lee Chang-dong Called Sul Kyung-gu Back Four Times, Now in Netflix's Possible Love

A 5 kg gun and a stick-shift license

Her first film was also her first action role. Jung prepared for six months before shooting. The gun weighs about 5 kg (11 pounds), and Na Hong-jin is famous for shooting a lot of takes, so “if you’re going to do twenty-some takes, weight training is a must.” She put on 4 kg (about 9 pounds) (Aju Business Daily).

She drove the car herself. She’d only had a regular automatic license, so for the car-chase scenes she got a new license that covers manual transmission and trained with a racing expert (Aju Business Daily). On her first day of car action, Hwang Jung-min sat in the passenger seat. When the crew’s safety instructions poured in all at once and her mind went blank, Hwang said one thing: “Hey, just do it however you want.” (Aju Business Daily)

Na Hong-jin’s obsessiveness started with the costumes. She had three fittings for a single police uniform, checking how it would look in natural light and with blood and dust makeup. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had that many fittings, too,” Jung said (JTBC).

Her own name next to Hwang Jung-min’s

After “Squid Game,” Jung chose her projects by one standard: sets with “seniors or directors who have a great deal of rich experience” (JTBC). Hwang Jung-min always arrived on set 20 minutes early, so she tried hard to get there even earlier. Zo In-sung was the one who looked after the actors and crew “lightly, with humor.” Between them, she laughed, she was “just the bright kid? The cheerful kid” (JTBC).

She remembers the moment she saw the poster at the premiere. “Seeing my name written next to Hwang Jung-min and Zo In-sung, I thought, ‘This is like a dream!’ and got goosebumps all over again.” (JTBC) Coming from an actress who owns a SAG trophy, that’s all the more lovable.

Kang Sae-byeok, whom the world noticed first

Jung’s acting debut was Netflix’s “Squid Game” in 2021. As North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok, she won the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Topstar News). In Korea she won Best New Actress at the first Blue Dragon Series Awards (Topstar News). Having already won a rookie award for a series, she’s now up for a rookie award in film.

• Where to watch: “Squid Game” on Netflix (U.S. and Korea, checked November 7, 2026).

Next came Alfonso Cuarón’s seven-episode Apple TV series “Disclaimer” (JTBC). She said Cuarón put “so much meaning and intention” into choosing even a single brooch, and that she learned respect from him (JTBC).

• Where to watch: “Disclaimer” on Apple TV (JustWatch, U.S., checked November 7, 2026).

Hwang Dong-hyuk, Na Hong-jin and Kim Jee-woon, whom she worked with recently, all said the same thing about her: she’s “like a wild horse” (Aju Business Daily). British Vogue also put her name on its list of 45 contenders to be the next Bond girl (Vogue Korea, November 3).

November 25, the night a rookie’s name is called

This year’s Blue Dragon nominees for Best New Actress are Kim Si-a (“The Summer Camera”), Seo Su-bin (“The World of Love”), Lee Yeon (“Gyeongju Travelogue”), Jang Da-a (“Salmokji”) and HoYeon Jung (“Hope”) (Newsis). At Cannes, watching Hwang Jung-min, Jung thought, “So that’s what a lead actor’s performance looks like,” and envied it. Na Hong-jin and Hwang told her, “Don’t try to do well.” She took it to mean that “inner strength is something time builds” (Aju Business Daily).

The actress the world awarded first says she’s still building up her time in Korea. On the night of November 25 at KBS Hall, I’m waiting for that time to be called by its first name.

Sources

• Newsis, October 28, 2026: Blue Dragon Film Awards nominees
• Aju Business Daily, July 22, 2026: HoYeon Jung interview
• JTBC: HoYeon Jung interview, part 1, part 2
• Etoday, November 4, 2026: first week in France, News Culture: Belgium
• Topstar News: award history (SAG, Emmy nomination, Blue Dragon Series Awards)
• Topstar News: Hope VOD release in Korea
• Vogue Korea, November 3, 2026: 45 next Bond girl contenders
• JustWatch U.S. (Hope 2026, Disclaimer), checked November 7, 2026