30 May – South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook was recently named Best Director at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The renowned filmmaker was awarded for his film, "Decision to Leave", a thriller-romance about the interaction between a detective and a widow who is also a prime suspect in his murder investigation.
"With the dreadful pandemic, there were times when we struggled due to the theatres closing down, but at the same time, we all realised how precious the existence of theatres had been to us," said Park, as reported by The Korea Herald. "I am confident that we will keep safeguarding the cinemas in difficult times, like we have been through the pandemic," he added. This is the third Cannes win for Park, who won Grand Prix in 2003 for his most famous film, "Old Boy", and the Jury Prize in 2009 for his horror movie, "Thirst". Aside from Park, another South Korean rep, Song Kang-Ho also won Best Actor at the event for his performance in Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Broker" - the first time for the actor, who has visited the festival seven times. He plays an illegal baby broker in the movie about a Korean family looking for a home for an abandoned baby. Speaking to the media after the ceremony, Song sang praises for the Japanese director, saying that Kore-eda understood Korean culture very much. "I have seen almost all of Kore-eda's films so far. Many Korean fans love his films aside from me, due to the distinctive aesthetics of Japanese movies," said the actor, who became famous overseas via his 2019 movie, "Parasite".