The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in collaboration with the Korea Creative Content Agency, seeks submissions from around the world for the inaugural Global Webtoon Awards. Shown are people in July last year taking free webtoon posters from the Naver Webtoon booth at the Amazing Festival, a pop culture event in Paris.

By Israa Mohamed

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on June 27 said it is accepting submissions for the inaugural Global Webtoon Awards in cooperation with the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

The contest is open to webtoons serialized for at least three months on domestic and international platforms between January 2022 and last month. Though artists can directly submit their works, webtoon platforms, production companies, associations and organizations can also enter with creator consent.

The event period is from July 27 to Aug. 26.

The awards committee of experts will also consider recommended works of excellence in addition to submissions to find hidden gems.

The ministry will collect both submitted and recommended works to have the contest's judging panel select 10 winners.

The awards ceremony will coincide with the inaugural Global Webtoon Festival co-organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In addition to the competition's 10 honors, the grand prize and the jury prize will be announced at the event.

In January, the ministry announced under its plan to advance domestic cartoons and webtoons the launch of awards dubbed the Cannes of webtoons. This marks the initial step toward achieving this vision.

More information on the contest like entering is available on KOCCA's official website (https://www.kocca.kr/en/main.do).

ess8@korea.kr