Park Chan-wook Set as 2026 Cannes Film Festival Jury President

This year's festival runs May 12 - 23. The Korean filmmaker has competed in Cannes' main competition with "Decision to Leave," "The Handmaiden," "Thirst," and "Oldboy."

Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook has been named the jury president of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 12-23. He will preside over the main competition selections, with the rest of the jury of filmmakers and talent to be announced soon.

The Korean filmmaker has competed in Cannes’ main competition with “Decision to Leave,” “The Handmaiden,” “Thirst,” and “Oldboy.” “Thirst” won the Jury Prize in 2009, while “Decision to Leave” won Best Director in 2022.

“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,” said festival president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Frémaux in a joint statement. “We are delighted to celebrate his immense talent and, more broadly, the cinema of a country deeply engaged with the questioning of our time.”

On Saturday, May 23, on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Park Chan-wook and his jury will award the 2026 Palme d’Or as the successor to last year’s, presented by Juliette Binoche to Iran’s Jafar Panahi for “It was Just an Accident.” The film is now up for two Oscars, including Best International Feature and Best Screenplay.

Park is the first Korean individual to serve as the main competition jury president; Korea’s first and only Palme d’Or winner was Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” from the 2019 festival.

In 2025, Park partnered with Palme d’Or whisperer Neon (having distributed the last six consecutive Palme winners) for the release of “No Other Choice.” That film premiered in competition at Venice 2025. The dark comedy, about a paper specialist who is forced to execute his competitors once he loses his jobs, was shortlisted for the 2026 Best International Feature Academy Award but not make the final five nominees to represent South Korea.

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival will be announced in April.