Park Chan-wook Is The Jury President For The 79th Cannes Film Festival
A first for Korean cinema, the acclaimed director whose works captivate will present the prestigious Palme d’Or on May 23rd…
Today the Cannes Film Festival announced the president of the Jury, Park Chan-wook. The South Korean director, screenwriter, and producer will preside over the Jury for Feature Films in competition for the festival. His presidency symbolizes the Festival’s commitment to Korean film-making.
Known for their direct skills for cinema, Korea has shown its ability to produce major contemporary works that attract millions of cinephiles. Park Chan-wook’s films tend to lean into stories that highlight a social message. He takes viewers to disturbing places that can be terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time. Often compared to Tarantino, De Palma, and Fincher for their ability to compose images whose beauty is matched only by their moral rigor, Park Chan-wook credits Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, and Hitchcock as his inspiration.
"Park Chan-wook's inventiveness, visual mastery, and penchant for capturing the multiple impulses of women and men with strange destinies have given contemporary cinema some truly memorable moments," explain Festival President Iris Knobloch and Director Thierry Frémaux, in announcement notes “We are delighted to celebrate his immense talent and, more broadly, the cinema of a country deeply engaged with the questioning of our time."
For Park Chan-wook, his entry into the renowned festival began with Old Boy, which won the Grand Prix in 2004. Since then, almost all of his films selected for the Competition have earned him awards: Thirst (Jury Prize 2009), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (Best Director 2022).
"The theater is dark so that we may see the light of cinema. We confine ourselves within the theater so that our souls may be liberated through the window of film,” comments Park Chan-wook on his presidency. “To be enclosed in a theater to watch films, and enclosed again to engage in debate with the members of the Jury, this double, voluntary confinement is something I await with great anticipation. In this age of mutual hatred and division, I believe that the simple act of gathering in a theater to watch a single film together, our breaths and heartbeats aligning, is itself a moving and universal expression of solidarity."
Acclaimed internationally by critics and audiences, Park Chan-wook is certainly a fascinating film-maker who continues to go places. He and his Jury will award the 2026 Palme d’Or as the successor to last year’s award that was presented by then Jury president Juliette Binoch to Iran’s Jafar Panahi for It Was Just An Accident.
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