History is always made during the Cannes Film Festival, but history has now been made before it. Park Chan-wook has been selected as the president of the competition jury for the 2026 festival. He becomes the first Korean to hold that honor in the 79 years of the cinephile event.
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The Seoul native follows last year’s jury president, Juliette Binoche. Her jury awarded the Palme d’Or to Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just An Accident.” Other recent jury presidents include Spike Lee, Greta Gerwig, Ruben Östlund, Vincent Lindon, Spike Lee, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Cate Blanchett, Pedro Almodovar, and George Miller. Chan-wook is the first jury president of Asian descent since Wong Kar-wai in 2006. Shockingly, he is just the third overall after Tetsurō Furukaki of Japan, who presided in 1962.
In a statement, Festival President Iris Knobloch and Director Thierry Frémaux remarked, “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. 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 began his career with “Joint Security Area,” which screened at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. He followed that up with the acclaimed “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” which screened at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals following its March 2002 release in South Korea. His first film at Cannes was “Oldboy,” which won the Grand Prix in 2004 following a November 2003 release in Korea. His fourth feature, “Thirst,” won the Jury Prize at the 2009 edition of the festival. “The Handmaiden” screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and won numerous critics’ awards as well as the Best Film Not in the English Language at the 2018 BAFTA Awards. Chan-Wook took Best Director at Cannes in 2022 for “Decision to Leave.” That drama earned the auteur his first Oscar nomination in the International Film category at the 95th Academy Awards.
His singular English-language film to date, “Stoker,” starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman, had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
“No Other Choice,” a world premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, was short-listed for this year’s Oscars, but did not make the cut. The film is the second-highest-grossing South Korean film of all time in the U.S., with $9.95 million to date.
Cannes and its jury may have to deal with a more intense press corps than usual. Berlin Film Festival’s jury president, Wim Wenders, delivered controversial remarks earlier this month (“We have to stay out of politics”) that sparked a massive controversy in Germany and among the global cinephile community. The festival jury at Cannes has always addressed the politics of the era, so Chan-wook, whose works are inherently political, will likely be more prepared.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival will run from May 12 to May 13. As always, look for complete coverage from La Croisette on The Playlist.
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