Park Chan-wook President of the Jury at the 79th Festival de Cannes

The 79th Festival de Cannes has appointed South Korean director, screenwriter and producer Park Chan-wook as President of the Jury for the Feature Films in Competition. It is the first time a Korean filmmaker has been entrusted with this role, a symbolic milestone reflecting both his personal trajectory and the broader international recognition of Korean cinema.

On Saturday, May 23, 2026, at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Park and his fellow jurors will award the Palme d’Or, succeeding last year’s prize presented by Juliette Binoche to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident. The appointment confirms the longstanding dialogue between the filmmaker and the Croisette, a relationship that began more than two decades ago.

In a joint statement, Festival President Iris Knobloch and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux emphasized the significance of the appointment: “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,” they said. “We are delighted to celebrate his immense talent and, more broadly, the cinema of a country deeply engaged with the questioning of our time.”

A Longstanding Relationship with Cannes

Park Chan-wook’s association with Cannes began in 2004, when Old Boy won the Grand Prix, establishing him on the international stage. Since then, several of his Competition titles have received recognition, including Thirst, which won the Jury Prize in 2009; The Handmaiden, in 2016; and Decision to Leave, which earned him Best Director in 2022.

His presence at the Palais des Festivals reflects a sustained artistic dialogue between the filmmaker and the Festival. His third feature, JSA (Joint Security Area), had already broken the South Korean box office record in 2000, confirming his domestic prominence before his global breakthrough.

Often compared to directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma, and David Fincher for his formal precision and moral intensity, Park Chan-wook has cited Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Luchino Visconti, and Alfred Hitchcock as formative influences. Hitchcock’s impact is particularly evident. After discovering Vertigo, Park resolved to become a director. The English master’s aesthetic resonates in his meticulous compositions, in Stoker starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska, and again in the obsessive atmosphere of Decision to Leave.

Obsession, Revenge and Social Allegory

Obsession remains a central thread in Park Chan-wook’s cinema, including his latest feature, No Other Choice (2025). The film is described as a satirical portrait of the destructive pursuit of success within Korean capitalist society, revisiting themes of male vanity that were already sharply addressed in The Handmaiden.

Revenge forms another defining motif. His trilogy comprising Sympathy for Mister Vengeance (2002), Old Boy (2004), and Lady Vengeance (2005) established a cinematic universe marked by pictorial intensity, moral ambiguity, and controlled excess. In these works, violence alternates with dark humour and emotional fracture, exploring characters torn between love and death.

Visceral, subversive and baroque, Park Chan-wook‘s films are bold in every way in script, in style and in morality. Yet the director consistently anchors his narratives in social allegory, engaging audiences through complex emotional immersion rather than abstraction.

Korean Cinema and the Cannes Legacy

Park Chan-wook’s presidency also underscores Cannes’ enduring engagement with Korean cinema. The Croisette has been a platform for successive generations of Korean filmmakers, beginning with Im Kwon-taek, who won Best Director in 2002 for Chi-hwa-seon (Strokes of Fire). Directors such as Hong Sang-soo, Kim Ki-duk, and Lee Chang-dong have since shaped Korea’s Competition presence, while Bong Joon-ho achieved a historic milestone by winning the Palme d’Or in 2019.

Korean actors have also been honoured at Cannes, including Jeon Do-yeon, who won Best Actress in 2007 for Secret Sunshine, and Song Kang-ho, who won Best Actor in 2022 for Broker. Song has collaborated with Park Chan-wook on four occasions, reinforcing the director’s central role within the national industry.

The Festival’s recognition of Park Chan-wook affirms the vitality of contemporary Korean cinema, described as free from conventions, audience-oriented, ambitious, deliberately provocative, and sophisticated without being intellectualised.

A Vision of Cinema as Collective Experience

Reflecting on his upcoming role, Park Chan-wook shared: “The theater is dark so that we may see the light of cinema. We confine ourselves within the theatre so that our souls may be liberated through the window of film. To be enclosed in a theatre 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 theatre to watch a single film together, our breaths and heartbeats aligning, is itself a moving and universal expression of solidarity.”

As anticipation builds ahead of the Festival’s opening on May 12, the appointment of Park Chan-wook signals both continuity and renewal within Cannes’ global narrative.