Rabat – Park Chan-wook, the acclaimed Korean filmmaker behind “Oldboy” and “No Other Choice,” will head the jury at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
The appointment makes Chan-wook the first Korean to preside over the jury that awards the prestigious “Palme d’Or.”
Chan-wook has been a regular at Cannes since “Old Boy” won the Grand Prix, the second-highest award at Cannes, in 2004.
He later won the Jury Prize in 2009 for “Thirst” and Best Director in 2022 for “Decision to Leave.”
“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,” said festival president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Frémaux in a joint statement.
“We are delighted to celebrate his immense talent and, more broadly, the cinema of a country deeply engaged with the questioning of our time.”
Chan-wook succeeds Juliette Binoche as jury president in Cannes. Last year, Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” won the Palme d’Or, while Chan-wook’s fellow countryman Bong Joon Ho previously won the award in 2019 for “Parasite.”
Chan-wook’s most recent film, “No Other Choice,” a dark satire about an unemployed family man who decides to eliminate his competition for a new job, was Korea’s Oscar submission but failed to secure a nomination.
The Associated Press named it one of the best films of 2025.
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