It had previously won two awards at BiFan

Iron Mask, a sports film by director Kim Sung-hwan, won the best film award at the London East Asia Film Festival 2023, the movie's distributor said Monday. The movie, the director's feature debut, beat Hopeless by Kim Chang-hoon and Day Off by Fu Tien-yu, among other competitors, at the annual film festival.

Iron Mask tells the story of Jae-woo (Joo Jong-hyuk), a kendo player who is set to face off against Tae-su (Moon Jin-seung), who killed his brother, for the final spot on the national kendo team.

The film previously won two awards -- the Best Korean Fantastic Film award and Watcha's Pick for Korean Fantastic award -- at the 27th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in July. It is set to hit local theaters Nov. 15.

A poster of "Iron Mask" is shown in this image provided by The Coup Distribution on Oct. 30, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) 

By Woo Jae-yeon