Park Chan-wook will head the jury at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, the first South Korean to do so in the history of the event. The renowned filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer succeeds Juliette Binoche, whose jury handed the Palme d’Or to Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s film It Was Just an Accident last year.
Park Chan-wook is known for his baroque and subversive filmmaking style. He has had a long-term connection with Cannes. He launched Oldboy at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix and has since become a cult classic. Since then, he has regularly been back at Cannes with films such as Thirst, which won the Jury Prize in 2009, The Handmaiden in 2016, and Decision to Leave, for which he won the Best Director prize in 2022.
Park Chan-wook to Head Jury at 79th Cannes Film Festival
In a joint statement, Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch and Director Thierry Fremaux hailed Park’s creativity, visual flair and subtle understanding of characters with complex motivations. They also stated that Park’s filmography has given the world of cinema some of its most iconic moments and that they were delighted to celebrate his talent and the vitality of South Korean cinema.
Park expressed his honour at being chosen as the jury president and stated that the cinema auditorium is a darkened room where one can see the light of cinema more clearly. He also talked about the concept of voluntary imprisonment, first in watching movies and then in jury deliberations, which he looks forward to with great enthusiasm. In what appears to be a reference to the global conflicts and political tensions, he also spoke about the shared experience of watching a movie together as a statement of solidarity in silence.
The French Connection: South Korean Cinema at Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival has been a long-time supporter of South Korean cinema. In 2002, the festival honoured Im Kwon-taek with the Best Director award for Strokes of Fire. Bong Joon-ho made history in 2019 with Parasite, the first Korean film to take home the coveted Palme d’Or prize. The film went on to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.
In recent years, the festival has also provided a platform for a new wave of South Korean filmmakers to showcase their work in competition. These include Hong Sang-soo, who showcased Tale of Cinema in 2005; Kim Ki-duk, whose Breath screened in 2007; and Lee Chang-dong, whose Poetry won Best Screenplay in 2010. Other South Korean films that have competed at Cannes include Kim Jee-woon’s A Bittersweet Life in 2005, Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan in 2016, Byun Sung-hyun’s The Merciless in 2017 and Lee Won-tae’s The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil in 2019.
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