Film Business Asia: Two leading Korean directors will decide the fate of key prizes at this year’s Cannes film festival.
Bong Joon-ho (봉준호) will head the jury of the Camera d’Or, the judging panel which gives a prize to the best first film in any section of the festival — the Official Selection (Competition and Un Certain Regard), during Critics’ Week or Directors’ Fortnight.
Lee Chang-dong (이창동) will chair the jury of Cannes’s Critics’ Week section.
Bong, previously attended Cannes in 2006 with The Host (괴물), which played in the Directors’ Fortnight. He was part of the 2008 Official Selection with Tokyo!, a trilogy which he split with Leos Carax and Michel Gondry and in 2009, he presented Mother (마더) in Un Certain Regard. Bong was recently on the jury of the Sundance festival in Utah, US.
Lee, a former minister of culture, as well as a novelist, screenwriter and director, has also been a frequent visitor to Cannes. Oasis (오아시스) screened at the 2003 edition of the Critics’ Week retrospective section, while Secret Sunshine (밀양) played in main competition in 2007 and earned Jeon Do-yeon (전도연) a best acting award. Last year’s Poetry (시) earned Lee a Cannes honour for best screenplay.
