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The Busan International Film Festival will not only be one of the major film events of the fall. For its 31st edition, the South Korean festival will also host 3 of the Most Anticipated K-Dramas in the Coming Months : Dead-End Job, The Remarried Empress and Road.
On August 25, the BIFF unveiled this year’s lineup for its «On Screen» section, which is dedicated to highly anticipated television productions. This selection will allow audiences to discover these three new shows on the big screen before they air.
And it’s hard not to notice the star-studded cast assembled for the occasion: Lee Jae-wook, Go Min-si, Shin Min-ah, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk, Lee Se-young, and Son Suk-ku are among the actors expected to appear in these new projects.
«Dead-End Job» and «Road»: Two Very Different New Netflix Shows
Among the three selected series is Dead-End Job, a new Netflix production starring, among others, Lee Jae-wook, Go Min-si, Kim Min-ha, and Lee Hee-joon.
Directed by Kim Da-min, the drama begins with a seemingly ordinary situation: a part-time job. But behind this job offer lies something much more disturbing. The series is expected to blend mystery, imagination, and elements rooted in reality, with an atmosphere intriguing enough to make it one of Netflix’s new releases to watch out for.
The BIFF will also host Road, the working title of another Netflix series, this time directed by Han Jun-hee. The director is best known for D.P., which won the Best Drama award at the 2022 Baeksang Arts Awards.
Son Suk-ku will star alongside Nagayama Eita and Kim Shin-rok in this crime thriller centered around a a mysterious series of murders spanning national borders. The investigation should gradually bring to light the truth behind these crimes.
Along with its director and cast, Road was already among the projects likely to attract attention. Its selection in Busan should further fuel curiosity about the series ahead of its release.
«The Remarried Empress,» one of the most anticipated shows on Disney+
But the series that's likely to generate the most buzz among K-drama fans is probably The Remarried Empress. The Disney+ fantasy romance features a truly impressive cast: Shin Min-ah, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk, and Lee Se-young will be at the heart of this highly anticipated adaptation.
Based on the popular web novel of the same name, The Remarried Empress tells the story of Navier, the perfect empress of the Eastern Empire, who is faced with her husband’s decision to divorce her. Rather than allow herself to be cast aside, she agrees to the divorce… before asking for permission to remarry another man.
A story of power, emotions, and revenge that already has a large readership, which partly explains the anticipation surrounding its adaptation into a series.
The directing duties were entrusted to Jo Soo-won, who has worked on dramas such as I Hear Your Voice and Thirty But Seventeen. Given the popularity of the original work, its fantasy setting, and—above all—its all-star cast, The Remarried Empress is shaping up to be one of the major upcoming Korean productions on Disney+.
The inclusion of these three dramas at BIFF also confirms the growing prominence of TV series at major festivals. Created to highlight highly anticipated television productions and offer viewers a true big-screen experience, the «On Screen» section has now become a must-see event for discovering select upcoming Korean releases before the rest of the audience.
This year, the selection also highlights the diversity of the new productions: mystery with Dead-End Job, fantasy and romance with The Remarried Empress, a crime thriller featuring Road.
The three series will be presented as part of the The 31st Busan International Film Festival, to be held October 6–15, 2026. This makes Busan one of the first major events for three K-dramas that are sure to generate a lot of buzz when they’re released. Stay tuned—we’ll be covering the festival live, of course!
