Park Chan-wook, the Korean filmmaker of “Oldboy” and “No Other Choice,” will head the jury at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. He’s the first Korean filmmaker to be given this responsibility.
Over the years, Chan-wook has been a Cannes regular, premiering his films back to back. Now, after years of contribution to the world of cinema, he has been chosen as the first Korean filmmaker to head the jury of the prestigious festival, which will be held this May. Park will be the first South Korean director to lead the jury.
Twenty years ago, Wong Kar-wai became the first, and, as of now, the only, Asian filmmaker to head the jury. The renowned South Korean will succeed French actor Juliette Binoche as the jury head.
“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,” they added. Reflecting on being selected as a jury head, Park said that he await wth great anticipation.
“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,’’ the Golden Globe director said.
“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,” he continued. The Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 12-23. (Agencies)
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