By Kim Seon Ah
Photo and video = Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on June 2 said that until Aug. 5, it will host worldwide Talk Talk Korea, the world's largest contest for Hallyu (Korean Wave) content.

This year's event has five categories: promotional video, art and craft, photobook, meme and trend, and the 80th Liberation Day. The latter was newly added this year to mark the milestone, and competitors in this section can creatively and freely express the significance of national independence without restrictions on format.

The ministry through a five-stage process will select 300 finalists: preliminary, first and second screenings, online voting and final evaluation. The newly added participation award will go to 220 works that pass the second evaluation and advance to online voting.

Among 80 works that advance to the final review, the top five in each category will be selected.

The first-place winners of the five categories will each win a free nine-day cultural exploration trip to Korea including airfare, and the grand prize recipient gets the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award. In addition to a free trip to Korea, the winner of the 80th Liberation Day section will also receive a digital product worth USD 2,000.

This year's awards ceremony is slated for Nov. 8 at the K-Wave Festival. The honored works will be displayed in Korea and abroad both on- and offline.

Talk Talk Korea's official promotional model is the K-pop boy band EPEX, who will appear in the promotional and how-to videos on entering the event to woo content creators worldwide.

Any foreign national interested in Korean culture can enter the contest through its official website (https://www.talktalkkorea.or.kr).

Marking its 12th edition this year, Talk Talk Korea is a leading Hallyu contest attracting competitors from a range of cultural backgrounds who creatively express the charm of Korean culture.

Official poster of this year's Talk Talk Korea