Korea’s CJ ENM recruits Acemaker CEO Jung Hyun-joo to lead film division

South Korea’s leading entertainment company CJ ENM has appointed former Acemaker Movieworks CEO Jung Hyun-joo as its head of film business.

Jung takes the role with immediate effect and joins directly from Acemaker, a financing, distribution and production company that she founded in 2018. CJ ENM said the executive would “bolster the competitiveness” of its films, in what is an increasingly challenging market.

Previous head of film business Jerry Kyoungboum Ko has been named global project leader and will focus on CJ ENM’s global film projects in his new role.

With more than 20 years in the business, Jung is credited as a key figure behind influential Korean films including Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 feature The Host when she was the production team lead at Chungeorahm Film.

She also spearheaded the Korean distribution of major titles such as The Lord Of The Rings, Shaolin Soccer and Kill Bill, bringing more than 100 films to Korea at while on the international acquisitions team of Taewon Entertainment.

In the 2010s, as head of production and investment at Showbox, she steered the production and investment of films that achieved commercial success and critical acclaim such as Nameless Gangster: Rules Of The Time, The Thieves, Inside Men, and A Taxi Driver.

Launching Acemaker in 2018, she spearheaded investment and distribution for Noryang: Deadly Sea, Black Money and The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil as well as production of various series for streaming platforms.

Joining CJ ENM, the company said it “aspires to strengthen its film business and accelerate global leap” through Jung’s appointment.

The firm marks its 30^th anniversary this year and is known for producing Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which was the first Korean film to win the Cannes Palme d’Or, the first non-English-language film to win best picture at the Oscars and took more than $262m at the worldwide box office.

CJ ENM has three major production and distribution studios: a drama producer Studio Dragon; US-based Fifth Season, and Korean streaming content production studio CJ ENM Studios. It also operates Korea’s leading online streaming platform Tving.

In October, the company revealed plans to support the challenged K-content ecosystem by maintaining its annual content investment of $750m (KRW1tn) and extending its IP across platforms.

“Despite the growing uncertainty in the film industry, we will continue to support creators and enable their imaginations to come to life and shine bright,” said CJ ENM CEO Yoon Sang-hyun during a forum in Busan.

Yoon acknowledged that “the content industry is in the middle of significant changes” due to increasing production costs and a shift to short-form content, but that he continued to “believe in the power of K-content”.

The following month, the company formed a co-development, co-financing and distribution partnership with US studio Warner Bros. to exploit remakes of each other’s films. Warner Bros Motion Pictures will act as lead studio on English-language films emanating from CJ ENM’s library, while CJ ENM will act as lead studio on Korean-language remakes from the Warner Bros vault.