The world’s most prestigious Cannes Film Festival kicks off on May 12 (local time), and all eyes are on whether the Korean film ‘Hope’ will take home a prize. Last year, no Korean films made it into the competition or non-competition categories, marking the first time in 12 years that the competition category was empty of Korean entries. This year, however, things are different! Director Park Chan-wook is serving as the Jury President, and director Na Hong-jin’s ambitious project ‘Hope’ has been nominated in the competition category. Additionally, director Yeon Sang-ho’s ‘Swarm’ and director Jung Ju-ri’s ‘Dora’ have also been invited, showing a strong Korean presence. With fewer works from world-renowned directors who have previously won at Cannes, expectations are high that ‘Hope’ could win the Palme d’Or for the first time since ‘Parasite’ in 2019.
According to the Cannes Film Festival organizing committee on the 11th, a total of 22 films have entered the competition for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, including Na Hong-jin’s ‘Hope’, Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Bitter Christmas’, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Sheep in the Box’. These films will compete for the highest honor, the Palme d’Or, as well as the Grand Prix, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. Including the competition entries, a total of 3,000 films will be screened this year. The festival will run for 12 days from May 12 to 23 around the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, southern France.
Premiering for the first time worldwide on the 17th, ‘Hope’ has been kept strictly under wraps but is considered one of the most anticipated films of the year. The story follows Beom-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the head of the Hopo Port office located in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), as the entire village goes on high alert after reports of a tiger sighting, leading him to encounter an unbelievable reality. The Festival Director raised expectations by praising the film, stating, “The genre constantly shifts, unfolding a new story that has never been dealt with before.”
Since ‘Hope’ is known to be in the science fiction (SF) genre, some pointed out that it differs from the types of works usually selected by Cannes. However, analysis that its method of delivering a message through cinematic imagination aligns with the “Spirit of Cannes” is gaining traction, leading to cautious predictions of a win. An official from the foreign film import and distribution industry predicted, “Cannes’ traditional choice of responding to the issues and zeitgeist of the year will likely continue this year.” Indeed, Cannes has awarded the Palme d’Or to works that fit the zeitgeist regardless of genre, such as ‘Triangle of Sadness’, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, ‘Anora’, and ‘It Was Just an Accident’. Furthermore, the fact that North American distributor Neon is handling ‘Hope’ is drawing significant attention. Starting with ‘Parasite’ and continuing up to ‘It Was Just an Accident’ last year, all six films distributed by Neon have won the Palme d’Or.
Japanese cinema is also showing strong progress, consistently producing new directors even as the film market endured the COVID-19 pandemic. Three films have entered the competition: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Sheep in the Box’ (Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or in 2018 for ‘Shoplifters’), Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘All of a Sudden’, and Koji Fukada’s ‘Nagi Diary’.
Another point of interest is the presence of K-movies in the non-competition categories. Director Yeon Sang-ho’s ‘Swarm’ has been invited to the Midnight Screening and will have its world premiere on the 15th, while director Jung Ju-ri’s ‘Dora’, invited to the Directors’ Fortnight, will premiere on the 17th.
The competition jury consists of nine members, including Jury President Park Chan-wook, Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao (director of ‘Hamnet’ and ‘Nomadland’), and actor Stellan Skarsgård, who won a Golden Globe for ‘Sentimental Value’.
