Sawt Falasteen - S.Korea's Park Chan-wook to head Cannes festival jury

Calling the appointment "a first for Korean cinema", a statement named the director behind "Oldboy" (2003) as president of the jury that will award the 2026 Palme d'Or.

Last year the award went to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident."

"In this age of hatred and division, I believe that the simple act of coming together in a movie theatre to watch a film at the same time... makes it possible to create a moving, universal sense of solidarity," the statement quoted Park, 62, as saying.

The festival praised his genre-blending cinema as "narrative, stylistic (and) moral".

Park achieved international stature with "Oldboy", which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004.

Based on a cult manga, the second installment of a dark trilogy about revenge tackled social inequalities -- a hallmark of Korean cinema.

Two more of Park's films have won awards at the festival in southern France: the vampire romance "Thirst" received the Jury Prize in 2009, while the thriller "Decision to Leave" won the Best Director Award in 2022.

His latest work, "No Other Choice" (2025), is adapted from Donald Westlake's 1997 novel "The Ax" and follows an unemployed man who decides to kill his potential competitors to land a job.

South Korean culture enjoys global recognition, with Park's films hailed alongside Bong Joon-ho's 2019 Palme d'Or for "Parasite", the hugely popular television series "Squid Game" and "KPop Demon Hunters" as well as K-pop groups BTS and Blackpink.

S.Barghouti--SF-PST