"Squid Game" has won a Gotham Award the first Korean content to do so.
The Netflix hit series won in the category for breakthrough series of over 40 minutes.
The director-writer Hwang Dong-hyuk remarked that it took 12 years to make the show, but less than 12 days for it to become a worldwide hit.
He added that that no one liked the script way back in 2009 when it was first pitched, with people saying that it was "unrealistic" and "weird."
The lead actor Lee Jung-jae was nominated in the category of Outstanding Performance in a New Series but didn't win the prize.
The Gotham Independent Film Awards are presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City in the United States.