'Nominations Open for World Webtoon Awards Main Prize Worth KRW 15 Million'

Ten Main Award Winners Including Grand Prize and Jury’s Award to Be Selected

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on June 15 that, together with the Korea Creative Content Agency, it is accepting nominations for the main awards at the '2026 World Webtoon Awards' until July 24.

The World Webtoon Awards, now in its third year, is a ceremony launched in 2024 to elevate the status of the Korean webtoon industry as the birthplace of webtoons and to inspire pride among creators and industry professionals. In its inaugural year, "Solo Leveling" received the Grand Prize. Last year, "The Future’s Antique Shop" won the Grand Prize and "Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint" received the Jury President’s Award, with a total of 11 works winning main and special (Popularity) awards. Notably, the Japanese work "The Fourth Husband" became the first overseas title to receive a main award, underscoring the international stature of the ceremony.

This year, the World Webtoon Awards will select nominees solely through reader recommendations, with no separate public submissions, in order to more actively reflect the opinions of webtoon fans worldwide. Eligible works are those serialized on domestic or international platforms between January 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026.

Anyone, regardless of nationality, can nominate up to three works for the main award per person from June 15 to July 24 via the official 2026 World Webtoon Awards website. The website supports five languages—Korean, English, Japanese, French, and Spanish—making it easy for international fans to participate in the nomination process.

The selection of main award winners will proceed in two stages: a preliminary and a final round. First, a preliminary jury consisting of creators and industry experts will review the top 100 works with the highest number of reader nominations. In this stage, 20 works will be selected based on both expert evaluations and reader recommendations. Then, in the final round, the results of a separate reader vote and the jury’s evaluation will be combined to determine the final 10 main award winners.

This year, the international character of the awards will be further strengthened with the introduction of an Overseas Work Award in addition to the existing Popularity Award. For the first time, cash prizes will be awarded to enhance the prestige of the ceremony. Each of the 10 main award winners will receive a prize of KRW 10 million and a trophy. Among these, the Grand Prize winner will receive an additional KRW 5 million and a special gift, while the Jury’s Award winner will receive an additional KRW 3 million and a special gift.

The 2026 World Webtoon Awards ceremony, which selects the best webtoon of the year, will take place on December 2 at COEX in Seoul. The ceremony will mark the opening of the 'World Webtoon Festival,' held at the same venue, signaling the start of the festivities. Further details about the ceremony and reader participation can be found on the official World Webtoon Awards website.

Choi Sunghee, Director of Content and Media Industry at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "Webtoons are a source of intellectual property (IP) for K-content that can expand into various fields. We will continue to support outstanding webtoons so that they can lead the global market, while elevating the value of this award as a platform for discovering innovative ideas and new possibilities through fair and transparent judging."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.