Park Chan-wook Becomes 2026 Cannes Jury President

Famous South Korean director, screenwriter, and producer, Park Chan-wook, will lead the international jury at the 79th Cannes International Film Festival, Cannes reported on Thursday.

The festival will run from May 12 to 23. Recognised for films he directed, among which are: ‘Oldboy,’ ‘The Handmaiden’ and ‘No Other Choice’, Park Chan-Wook will be the first Korean head of the Cannes jury that picks this year’s Palme d’Or on Saturday, May 23rd.

This event will unfold on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, where he and his jury will award the 2026 Palme d’Or. The successor to last year’s prize was Iran’s Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just an Accident.” French actress Juliette Binoche presented the Palme d’Or.

The president of the Cannes festival, Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Frémaux said in a released statement that, “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.” The statement further adds that the festival is delighted to commemorate his immense talent.

Park Chan-wook first came to international prominence with his third film, Joint Security Area, which premiered in Berlin in 2001.

His breakthrough, however, came three years later with the world premiere of Oldboy at Cannes. The revolutionary revenge thriller won the Grand Jury Prize.

Ever since then, Park has been a regular at Cannes, returning several times and hardly going away empty-handed.

His vampire drama “Thirst”won Cannes’ jury prize in 2009; “The Handmaiden”(2016) won the Vulcan Prize for its production design; and his Hitchcockian thriller “Decision to Leave” took best director in 2022.

“He is often compared to film-makers such as Tarantino, De Palma, and Fincher for artistry in composing images whose formal beauty is matched only by their moral rigour. He also cites Kurosawa, Bergman, Visconti, and Hitchcock as models,” the statement read.