Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France — President Lee Jae Myung on Monday called for the establishment of a partnership connecting promising local cultural content creators with global distribution platforms, describing it as an important system that would benefit the global film industry.

Lee made the remarks at a roundtable with the heads of leading content companies from South Korea, France and other countries, held under the title "New Perspectives on Local and Global Co-prosperity."

The rare meeting took place on the sidelines of the Lumiere Summit, co-chaired by Lee and French President Emmanuel Macron in the French resort town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The event aimed to explore ways to strengthen cooperation and advance the global cultural industry through mutual, sustainable support.

Participants included Yoon Sang-hyun, chief executive officer of CJ ENM; Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver; Pierre-Antoine Capton, CEO of French media conglomerate Mediawan; and Isabel Haskey, vice president at Netflix.

Lee highlighted that the moment has arrived when the uniqueness of local stories can serve as a source of global competitiveness. South Korean films and drama series, in particular, have gained worldwide influence through distinctive narratives, contributing to the expansion of the global cultural sector and the diversification of the global cinematic ecosystem, he said.

That global standing has been built over more than two decades: Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020, while "Squid Game," released on Netflix in 2021, became one of the streaming service's most-watched series worldwide — milestones that demonstrated the commercial reach of Korean-language content on global platforms. For the platforms represented at the roundtable, including Netflix, Korean content has become a significant driver of international subscriber engagement, which gives Lee's call for a structured partnership concrete commercial relevance for both sides.

"The synergy created when the uniqueness of the local ecosystem meets the expansiveness of global networks is an important system that could help amplify the results of us all," the South Korean president said, calling for an elevated global stage for cooperation.

The president expressed hope that "a virtuous-cycle partnership could be established, in which global capital and distribution channels combine with promising local stories so that the local production ecosystem will gain vigor, leading, in turn, to an increase in the competitiveness of global platforms."

Lee said South Korea will spare no policy or institutional support in promoting global joint production projects, related investment and expanded cooperation in global content distribution.

He also held a separate meeting with several South Korean film directors and actors, including Lee Chang-dong, Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu, discussing efforts to sustain the recent successes of Korean films and other content while pledging government support.

In addition, the president met separately with Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Motion Picture Association (MPA); executives from MPA member companies, including the Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Netflix; and a vice chairperson of CJ Group.

South Korea's cultural content industry is currently at a turning point, the president said, pledging full government support for content production and the development of new sources of stories in the country. Whether that support translates into concrete co-production frameworks with global platforms is likely to be a focal point of cultural policy cooperation between Seoul and its partners in the months ahead.

Source: The Korea Times