The red carpet of the prestigious Baeksang Arts Awards for the year 2017 was finally rolled this day, May 3.

The awarding body recognized all outstanding performances in films and television. For the latter category, one of the most coveted titles is the Best Drama award which was taken last year by tvN’s thriller, Signal. This year, another tvN drama, Dear My Friends bagged the same award. This is an interesting development since for the past decades, dramas from KBS, MBC and SBS usually received the recognition. Cable dramas are now making it to the top and competing well with their free-to-air counterparts.

The Grand Prize went to Kim Eun-sook, the screenwriter of Goblin and last year’s Grand Prize winner, Descendants of the Sun. Writer Kim is an award-winning screenwriter who already received two Best Screenwriter awards from Baeksang for her past projects Lovers in Paris and Secret Garden.

The equally prestigious Best Director award was won by Director Yoo In-sik for the SBS drama Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim. Director Shin Won-ho of the hit cable drama Reply 1988 won the same award last year. A notable drama entails not only a good directing but also a well-written script. Dear My Friends’ writer No Hee-kyung grabbed the Best Screenwriter award following last year’s Kim Eun-hee of Signal. For two consecutive years now, the best drama was also recognized as having the best script.

Fans around the world were surely happy and excited to see their favorite actors and actresses walk the red carpet and earn awards but eventually only a few of these actors and actresses will get to deliver their acceptance speech. The leading actor of tvN’s Goblin, Gong Yoo, received the Best Actor award for his stellar performance in the drama. On the other hand, the Best Actress award was nabbed by Seo Hyun-jin for her role in Another Oh Hae-young, also from tvN.

Under the same spotlight, Kim Min-seok won the Best New Actor award for the drama Doctors while Lee Se-young of The Gentlemen Of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop got the Best New Actress title.

Love in the Moonlight couple Park Bo-gum and Kim Yoo-jung emerged as this year’s Most Popular Actor and Actress, respectively, following Descendants of the Sun‘s Song-Song couple that won similar awards last year.

The Baeksang Arts Awards is a prestigious annual award ceremony considered to be South Korea’s Golden Globe Awards in which notable achievements in the South Korean entertainment industry are given honor in the fields of film and television. Chang Ki-young, founder of Hankook Ilbo, established the awarding ceremony in 1965 and named it after his alias “Baeksang”. As usual, the awarding ceremony garnered much attention from Korean drama and film fans across the globe.