PARIS — South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook has been named president of the 79th Cannes Film Festival jury, an appointment announced by festival organizers and reported by AP News, Reuters, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap, and Deadline. We are emphasizing facts confirmed by at least four of these sources.
- Park Chan-wook will serve as jury president for the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
- He is the first Korean filmmaker to preside over the Cannes jury.
- The 2026 Cannes Film Festival runs May 12–23.
- Park is widely known for films including ‘Oldboy,’ ‘The Handmaiden,’ and ‘Decision to Leave.’
- At Cannes, he previously won the Grand Prix for ‘Oldboy’ (2004), the Jury Prize for ‘Thirst’ (2009), and Best Director for ‘Decision to Leave’ (2022).
Additional Details Reported
Festival president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Frémaux praised Park’s visual mastery in a joint statement (TheWrap; Deadline). Park said he looked forward to the two-week deliberations and described the act of gathering in theaters as an expression of solidarity (Variety; The Hollywood Reporter). Several outlets also noted that he succeeds Juliette Binoche as jury president and that the official selection will be announced in mid-April (Variety; The Hollywood Reporter).
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Credit: Hedra (Nano Banana 2) License: Generated image (editorial illustration) Source: Local generation via Hedra prompt Modifications: Resized to 1920×1080 (16:9) Caption/Disclosure: Editorial illustration of a film festival jury setting with a cinema screen and laurel motif. (Artificial Intelligence generated image / EOBS.biz)