The Cannes International Film Festival announced on Thursday that South Korean director Park Chan-wook will chair the jury of the 79th Cannes International Film Festival.
The famous director behind Big boy, the maid and There is no other choiceHe will chair the international jury that will choose the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or. The 2026 Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 12 to 23. He will be the first Korean to head the Cannes jury.
“Park Chan-wook’s creativity, visual mastery, and penchant for capturing the multiple motivations of women and men with strange fates have given contemporary cinema some truly unforgettable moments,” Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Fremaux said in a statement. “We are thrilled to celebrate his enormous talent and, more broadly, cinema in a country deeply engaged with the questions of our time.”
Park Chan Wook first attracted international attention with his third feature film, joint security area, Which was shown in Berlin in 2001, but its launch came three years later with the world premiere of its film Big boy In Cannes. The revenge thriller won the Grand Jury Prize (there was speculation that jury president Quentin Tarantino wanted to award it the Palme).
Park has returned to the Croisette several times since then, rarely leaving empty-handed. His vampire drama thirst It won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, for historical drama the maid (2016) won the Vulcan Award for its production design and Hitchcockian thriller The decision to leave He won the Best Director award in 2022.
The festival said in a statement: “His presence at the Palais des Festivals bears witness to the mutual loyalty that exists between Park Chan-wook and the Cannes Film Festival.” “He is often compared to filmmakers such as Tarantino, De Palma, and Fincher for the artistry in composing images whose formal beauty is matched only by their moral rigor. He also cites Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, and Hitchcock as models.”
Park is also a regular in Venice, where Sympathy for Lady Vengeanceand There is no other choice It was shown for the first time. There is no other choice It was shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards in the Best International Film category, but was not among the final five nominees.
Cannes said Park Chan-wook’s presidency symbolizes the festival’s “early and deep connection with Korean cinema, whose creativity has been revealed through the official selection. Korea is a great filmmaking country whose treasures are restored year after year; it has shown itself capable of producing major contemporary works that attract millions of theatergoers in a space that celebrates filmmakers.”
In a statement following his presidential announcement, Park said he looked forward to spending two weeks watching and discussing films in Cannes.
“The theater is dark so we can see the light of the cinema,” his statement read. “We confine ourselves within the theater until our souls are freed through the film window. To be confined in the theater to watch films, and isolated again to participate in a discussion with the members of the jury, this voluntary double 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 the theater to watch a single film together, our breaths and our hearts beating in harmony, is in itself a poignant and universal expression of solidarity. There is no doubt that hearts It will be beating strong on May 12th.
The list of participants for the 79th Cannes International Film Festival will be announced in mid-April.
