Park Chan-wook, pictured here in Cannes on May 12, 2026, says, 'There can be politically strong and artistically brilliant masterpieces, but there could also be masterpieces without any politics involved.'Marko Djurica/Reuters
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is no stranger to extreme situations.
As the visionary director behind Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and last year’s hit comedic thriller No Other Choice, Park has staged some of the most violent and intense sequences in cinematic history – anyone who’s seen Oldboy will never look at a hammer the same way again. And yet walking into Cannes this week as the president of the film festival’s jury, Park is putting himself into a prestigious yet potentially explosive position.
Not only must the director corral a jury of fellow artists – including director Chloe Zhao, actor Stellan Skarsgård, and actress Demi Moore – but he is also facing a headline-grabbing moment in which film festivals have become staging grounds for politically charged controversies.
‘Doors are opening’ for Canadian filmmakers carrying the flag at Cannes
Beginning with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but intensifying since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023, film festivals around the world have found themselves laced with heated political debate. Last year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival could not escape controversy over its back-and-forth decision-making about a Canadian documentary on the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, this past February’s Berlinale nearly imploded when director Wim Wenders, president of that festival’s jury, said that filmmakers had to “stay out of politics,” when asked about the organizers’ position, or lack thereof, on the Middle East conflict.
The debates have become so passionate and unavoidable that Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ general delegate and the organization’s most public-facing voice, tried to head the situation off entirely during the festival’s opening press conference Monday.
“I’m not going to put my function in the service of my opinions,” Frémaux told reporters. “Cannes considers that political matters should be taken up by what the filmmakers say and do.”
Park Chan-wook gestures as he poses with members of the jury during a photocall of the members of the jury at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France on May 12, 2026.VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
Yet on Park’s part, he’s walking into Cannes with little trepidation – and even a welcome sense of anticipation when it comes to the conversation.
“I don’t believe that films only with political statements are great films, but just because a film is political, it doesn’t mean that it’s an enemy of art,” the director said in an interview with select international press on Tuesday, the festival’s opening day. “I actually think that it’s very strange to describe art and politics as if they are in conflict. There can be politically strong and artistically brilliant masterpieces, but there could also be masterpieces without any politics involved.”
It helps that Park enters the jury fray not only as an artist, but an artist with the background of a hard-nosed, thick-skinned critic unafraid to tackle the discourse head-on. After his first two films failed commercially in the late ’90s, Park supplemented his income as a critic for various South Korean radio and television stations. In other words, he knows how to judge his fellow filmmakers not on message alone, but how the language of cinema is used to convey it. Even if that job can be easier said than done.
“Not to say that being a film critic was a bad job, it was in fact a very respected job. But I was someone who wanted to make my own films, and being in the position where I had to write about other people’s films was a very difficult time for me,” Park said with a laugh.
On its surface, the official competition program at this year’s Cannes treads lightly when it comes to the explicit spectre of politics. There are new films from such long-time festival favourites as Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar (the dramedy Bitter Christmas), Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (the sci-fi drama Sheep in the Box), and James Gray (the crime drama Paper Tiger). But there are only a few titles that appear set to touch off politically sensitive conversations, including works from two leading dissident filmmakers: Iran’s Asghar Farhadi (here with the France-shot drama Parallel Tales) and Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev (the dramatic thriller Minotaur).
Yet, for Park, any of the discomforts that might come with judging fellow filmmakers, whatever their message might be, is far outweighed by the importance of highlighting cinema on the world stage.
“I’ve spoken with our jurors, and all of the jurors say they have a difficult time judging other people’s work. Some even say it’s a very painful experience. So then you might ask, ‘Why do it? Why didn’t you turn it down if it’s such a painful experience?’” Park asks, the glittering waves of the French Riviera lapping in the background.
“That’s because awards are, at the end of the day, very much necessary in film festivals. And being able to be in a position where you can recommend this film, saying it’s good, you should pay attention to it, will leave great moments in cinematic history.”
While Park is serving as the president of the Cannes jury for the first time this year – becoming the first South Korean filmmaker to take the position – he’s arriving with the political leadership lessons that he learned from his time as a juror during the 2017 festival, when Almodóvar was president.
“He was a very democratic leader in meetings – he was almost frustratingly patient when it came to waiting for others,” Park recalls. “He would listen to everyone speak and wait for everyone to speak. So he was a truly great role model of a president, and I wish to follow him, and the fact that I now have to evaluate his film, as someone from the East who very much prioritizes age and respecting your elders, it’s a very difficult position to be in.”
“But I think in the world of art, experience and age isn’t as important,” he adds. “Everyone should be judged for their individual art.”
The Cannes Film Festival runs through May 24.