Park Chan-wook will lead the Cannes Film Festival jury, will be the 1st Korean in the role

Park Chan-wook, the Korean filmmaker of “Oldboy” and “No Other Choice,” will head the jury at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, festival organizers announced Thursday.

Chan-wook is the first Korean to preside over the jury that will award the prestigious Palme d'Or. He has been a regular in Cannes since “Old Boy” won the Grand Prix, or second prize, in 2004. He 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 follows Juliette Binoche as jury president in Cannes, where Jafar Panahi's “It Was Just an Accident”won the Palme d'Or in 2025. Chan-wook's countryman, Bong Joon Ho, won the Palme 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 selection but failed to be nominated. The Associated Press named it one of the best films of 2025.

The Cannes Film Festival runs May 12-23.