Choi Jae-won (; born 1967) is a South Korean film investor, planner, and producer, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Anthology Studio, a subsidiary of Studio LuluLala. He started his career as security analyst at a venture capital company. He became film investor after he introduced South Korea's first film investment fund.
Throughout his career, he has held CEO positions at iPictures, Barunson E&A, Next Entertainment World, and withUs Film. Moreover, he has served as the former head of Warner Bros. Korea, fostering collaboration between the domestic film market and major Hollywood studios.
Choi Jae-won has overseen the investment, production, and distribution of numerous critically acclaimed films. His portfolio includes collaborations with director Kim Jee-woon's A Tale of Two Sisters and The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); as well as Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder, The Host, and Mother. He also worked on Yang Woo-suk's 2013 film Yang Woo-suk's The Attorney (2013), which sold over ten million tickets and ranks among the highest-grossing films in South Korean box office history.
In 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism appointed Choi Jae-won as one of seven members of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). He served a two year term from January 3, 2020, to January 3, 2022. During this tenure, he was also appointed vice chairman of the council in January 2021.
Early life and education Choi Jae-won was born in 1967. After attending Seondeok High School, he enrolled in Korea University in 1986. He studied in the Department of Agricultural Economics, which has since been renamed the Department of Food and Resource Economics. Although he aspired to attend art school, he abandoned the idea due to his father's opposition. During college, he pursued his creative interests through theater. Choi later worked as a writer for the Korea Broadcasting Corporation.
Career Early career Following his graduation, Choi began his career as a securities analyst at Korea Industrial Securities, a venture capital firm. Despite earning a high salary, he decided in his early 30s to pivot toward film investment. Choi's path into the industry began in 1997 when he joined Infinite Technology Investment, a mid sized startup led by CEO Lee In-gyu. By 1998, while focusing on online investment, Choi developed a keen interest in the film sector. In early 1999, he was introduced to Uni Korea by Moon Seong-keun to discuss forming a venture fund, though the partnership did not materialize. Choi's transition to filmmaking career brought significant financial hardships, including the sale of his Gangnam apartment and a move to a rented home on the outskirts of Seoul. Despite these challenges, he remained committed to his goal of producing at least one film that would deeply resonate with audiences.
While still serving as director at Infinite Technology Investment, around June of that year, Choi met Sidus Pictures' CEO, and they started working with CJ Entertainment. Success finally arrived in mid December when Cha secured the support of CEO of Showbox, Director Kang Woo-suk. Together, they established an ₩11.5 billion venture fund named the Cha Seung-jae Venture Fund. To operate this fund, Choi and Cha cofounded iPictures Co., Ltd. (), a joint investment between Infinite Technology Investment and Sidus. Choi and Cha jointly led iPictures, a company specializing in practical investments across the visual content industry, including planning, production, marketing, distribution, and merchandising. The fund's inaugural investment was Bong Joon-ho's commercial film debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite."Director Bong Joon-ho's Barking Dogs Never Bite probably cost around 900 million won from what I remember. I have only started investing in movies, and I think the market environment then was better than it is now. In the past, when there were rumors of a crisis, it was actually a crisis of production capital. If we judge that the current crisis is a crisis of production capital, consumers' behavior patterns have changed, consumption habits have changed, and content distribution has changed."—Choi on his first film investment.In August 2000, Choi was appointed head of the Content Team at Infinite Technology Investment. By January 2001, he expanded the firm's portfolio beyond cinema to include games and online platforms, with investments in entities such as Web Cinema, Easy Club, and Geoinet. During this period, the firm invested in 20 films and animations, including the box office success Kick the Moon, Musa, and .
Choi also oversaw the expansion of venture capital resources. On September 24, 2001, Infinite Technology Investment established MBC Infinite Video Venture Fund No. 1 and No. 2, with capitalizations of ₩5 billion and ₩50 billion, respectively. For the first fund, MBC contributed ₩4.2 billion while Infinite Technology Investment provided ₩800 million, with a primary focus on MBC produced content. The second fund targeted the broader film industry, drawing capital from diverse members including the Korea Local Administrative Mutual Aid Fund, the Korean Film Council, Sunwoo Entertainment, Sidus Pictures, and Enter One.
In 2002, the investment scale was estimated at ₩30 billion, including ongoing productions. The firm focused on Sidus Pictures projects, with plans to invest in 14 works. These included Kim Young-bin's film Balhae, produced for ₩4.5 billion; the horror film A Tale of Two Sisters, and the animation Adventure in the East River. However, the year's financial performance was mixed. Among iPictures' primary investments in 2002, only Marriage Is a Crazy Thing proved profitable, earning ₩1 billion. Other major projects incurred significant losses, including My My Beautiful Girl, Mari (₩2 billion), Jungle Juice (₩300 million), and Road Movie (₩900 million), totaling a ₩3.2 billion deficit. While Cha Seung-jae was initially responsible for selecting projects, he eventually withdrew from the fund as box office performance declined.
Starting in September 2002, Choi began operating iPictures independently from Infinite Technology Investment. Although he requested the transfer of the remaining funds he had managed, Infinite Investment declined. Despite personal concerns regarding his transition from a salaried employee to an independent entrepreneur, Choi leveraged his industry expertise to move forward. He committed to two major projects Madeleine and A Tale of Two Sisters, which represented a new chapter for the company.
Although Madeleine (2003) incurred a loss of approximately 1.5 billion KRW, leaving the company's survival in question, the release of Kim Jee-woon's A Tale of Two Sisters proved to be a turning point. The film attracted 3.15 million viewers nationwide and generated at least ₩3 billion for i-Pictures. Choi's investment was particularly high risk because the lead actors, Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun-young, were newcomers at the time. Their casting led other investors to withdraw their support, forcing Choi to cover the investment single handedly. Following the film's significant success, he shared the profits with the crew, a gesture that was unprecedented in the Korean film industry.
iPictures saw further success in 2003 with other major investments. Bong Joon-ho's thriller Memories of Murder drew 5.3 million viewers, while the melodrama Singles reached an audience of 2.5 million. By acquiring a 30% stake in Memories of Murder and a 22% stake in Singles, Choi ensured that both films would generate a net profit exceeding ₩2 billion.
In 2004, Choi served as the primary investor for Lim Chan-sang's The President's Barber. Although the initial production cost was ₩4 billion, their total investment reached close to ₩10 billion. Starring Song Kang-ho and Moon So-ri, the film depicts four decades of South Korean history through the perspective of a barber selected to serve President Park Chung-hee. Despite receiving critical acclaim upon its release on May 5, 2004, the film did not reach its break-even point and was considered a box office disappointment.
Barunson and Next Entertainment World (NEW) Following the failure of their latest film, The President's Barber, iPictures experienced bankruptcy, prompting Choi to consider a return to the financial world. However, he made the decision to delve into film production instead. On November 9, 2005, Choi sold iPictures to Barunson Co., Ltd. This acquisition allowed Barunson to expand its presence in the entertainment industry and establish Barunson Entertainment. Prior to the acquisition, iPictures had been involved in the film business since 2000 through a Venture Fund and had ranked as the third-largest company in terms of investment performance, trailing behind Cinema Service and CJ Entertainment.
After the acquisition, Choi took on the leadership role in the film business division at Barunson. The division's goal was to produce, co-produce, and invest in more than 10 films annually, starting from the following year. Notably, the division had already secured investment contracts. At the time, Choi signed a contract with directors Kim Jee-woon and Bong Joon-ho for two films each, which was an unprecedented move in the industry. Both director Kim Jee-woon's film A Bittersweet Life (2005) and Bong Joon-ho's film The Host (2006) were both critically and commercially successful.
In 2005, Choi transitioned into a producer role while overseeing Barunson's film division. The first film he produced was director Yim Pil-sung's film Hansel and Gretel. It began filming in April 2007.
Choi was also involved in the investment and production of Kim Jee-woon's film The Good, the Bad, and the Weird. It began filming in May 2007. It garnered immediate public attention due to the presence of three renowned actors: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung. It faced challenges such as production delays in China which resulted in increased production costs, and a recession in the Korean film market. Concerns arose regarding the film's potential success. However, following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the film received a string of favorable reviews. It quickly surpassed seven million viewers, making it highly likely to achieve profitability. As the CEO of Barunson Entertainment, Choi personally experienced the hardships and pressures endured by both actors and directors, from the initial stages of film production to the screening phase. If a project featuring such reputable actors and a director fails to achieve success, the responsibility squarely falls on the producer.
A year later, Choi served as a producer for director Bong Joon-ho's film Mother. Choi shared insights about the film. He described Mother as a unique Korean film that explores the theme of motherhood using a mother's perspective. The movie had elements of a feminine thriller and mystery, giving it a distinctive style not commonly seen in previous Korean films. He mentioned that the film had a dreamlike quality despite being grounded in realism. Choi also highlighted the universal relevance found in the director's previous work, The Host, and the tension present in Memories of Murder. Overall, Mother successfully combined these elements, creating a more accessible portrayal of the mother-child relationship.
In 2007, he was ranked 38th in the list of Cine21 Chungmuro 50 Power Filmmaker. He was chosen for his ability to quickly adapt to director branding trends and for his innovative approach of combining capital and talent directly, without relying on a production company as an intermediary. Although his experimental film business model, which involved investing based on the abundant capital of a listed company and establishing a production unit directly, had yet to be fully proven. It was anticipated that he would demonstrate a certain level of efficiency given the growing influence of directors in the industry.