The Awards IU Won for When Life Gives You Tangerines in 2025

At the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards, held at Paradise City in Incheon on 18 July 2025, IU won Best Actress in the drama categories for the Netflix series When Life Gives You Tangerines. She took the Upbit Popular Star Award at the same ceremony, and the series took the Grand Prize. This is what IU and the people who made the series won at Korean award shows across 2025, in order, from May to December.

Best Actress at the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards

The 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards were held at Paradise City in Jung-gu, Incheon, on 18 July 2025. Newsis and News1 both reported that Best Actress in the drama categories went to IU for When Life Gives You Tangerines.

In the acceptance speech Newsis printed, IU called the series “a piece of work that I think will be the greatest pride of my life” and went on: “I want to offer my respect and thanks to every Ae-sun who lived a life of her own more clearly than anyone in a world that demanded she live faintly, and to every Geum-myeong who planted and grew her own ambition stubbornly in every corner of the world.” Ae-sun and Geum-myeong are the two characters IU plays in the series.

The Popular Star Award the same evening, and the Grand Prize for the series

IU also took the Upbit Popular Star Award at the same ceremony. The winners’ list Harper’s Bazaar Korea published gives that category to four people: Park Bo-gum, Hyeri, Lee Jun-hyuk and IU.

When Life Gives You Tangerines took the Grand Prize that evening, and Yeom Hye-ran took Best Supporting Actress. Those three categories, reported by Newsis and Harper’s Bazaar Korea, are what the series won at the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards.

May that year: four categories at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards

Two months before the Blue Dragon ceremony, the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards were held at 8 p.m. KST on 5 May 2025. Digital Daily reported that When Life Gives You Tangerines, which was up for eight categories, won four: Best Drama, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress in the television categories.

Netflix’s own editorial site, Tudum, records the same four: Best Drama, Best Screenplay for writer Lim Sang-choon, Best Supporting Actor for Choi Dae-hoon and Best Supporting Actress for Yeom Hye-ran. All four went to the series itself, its writer and its supporting cast.

December that year: the Grand Prize at the APAN Star Awards

At the 2025 Seoul Con APAN Star Awards, held at Art Hall 1 of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on 29 December 2025, IU took the Grand Prize. The Hankook Ilbo and News1 reported that When Life Gives You Tangerines won six categories including that one, the most of any title at that ceremony. The other five were Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor in a mid-length drama, Best New Actor and the young actor award.

In the speech News1 printed, IU said of the series that “simply having taken part in it makes it a proud and precious piece of work that will stay with me like a medal”, and added that “our series is a story about people who live the day they are given in earnest”. Her closing line was the Jeju greeting the series takes its Korean title from; Geumgang Ilbo writes that the phrase means “you have worked so hard”.

Key takeaways

• On 18 July 2025, at the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards, IU won Best Actress in the drama categories for When Life Gives You Tangerines.
• The Upbit Popular Star Award at the same ceremony went to four people: Park Bo-gum, Hyeri, Lee Jun-hyuk and IU.
• When Life Gives You Tangerines won three categories at the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards: the Grand Prize, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for Yeom Hye-ran.
• On 5 May 2025, at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards, the series won four categories: Best Drama, Best Screenplay and both supporting-role awards.
• On 29 December 2025, at the 2025 Seoul Con APAN Star Awards, IU took the Grand Prize and the series won six categories.