Oldboy director Park Chan-wook to lead Cannes jury

He has been a regular at 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," festival president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Fremaux said in a joint statement on Thursday.

"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 from May 12 to 23.