The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has announced Danny Lee as the winner of the 2008 KOFIC Filmmakers Development Lab (FDL) grant of $15,000 for his feature film script Winter War.

Winter War is a gritty thriller about Paul, an ambitious young commodities trader who gets sucked into the underworld of a European drug syndicate.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Danny Lee made his film debut with the critically-acclaimed Rock Fresh, a documentary about graffiti artists crossing over into the commercial art world.

The film premiered at the AFI Fest and was afterwards acquired by US cable channel Showtime.

Started in 2006, the FDL pairs industry professionals as mentors to emerging filmmakers from Korea and the Korean diaspora to develop their English-language feature film projects at a workshop - this year held June 22-29 in Jeju Island.

The FDL fellows thendebut their projectsat Pusan International Film Festival's Asian Film Market in October.

The FDL is held in association with the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii, the Center for Asia American Media in San Francisco, and the Independent Film Project in New York.

This year's FDL mentors included ex-Warner Bros executive, Lauren Craniotes; Korean producers Jooick Lee (A Battle Of Wits) and Oh Jung-wan (A Bittersweet Life); Hollywood agent Brant Rose; and senior mentor at the American Film Institute and previous studio executive Barry Sabath.

Topics