First screening to Palme d’Or win, Korean cinema's rise to prominence at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival will be screening five Korean films this year. The list includes Cobweb, Hopeless, Project Silence, Sleep and In Our Day. Korean cinema audience has taken a giant leap in the last few years, partially due to the global accessibility on OTT platforms, thus becoming a favourite at Cannes Film Festival and the likes. 

Korean Cinema at Cannes: Early stages

At Cannes, Korean films started their journey with Lee Doo-yong’s Spinning the Tales of Cruelty Toward Women. This was the first Korean film to be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won the special jury prize that year. Some years down the line, The Power of Kangwon Province was screened under the Un Certain Regard category at 1998 edition of Festival de Cannes. This was just the beginning. 

Rise of Korean film screenings at Cannes 

The Cannes Film Festival in the early 2000s was a turning point for Korean cinema. As Asian cinema was making giant strides in storytelling, Europe could not look away. Chunhyang by IM Kwon-Taek became the first Korean film to be chosen in the competition category in 2000, alongside three other Korean titles in other categories. Known as "the father of Korean cinema" by critics, Kwon-taek also became the first Korean director to bring home the nation's first-ever award from Cannes in 2002 with Chihwaseon, also known as Painted Fire. The movie is based on the real life experiences of Korean painter Jang Seung-eop, who revolutionised the Korean arts scene in the 19th century.  

In 2004, Park Chan-wook won the second highest honour at Cannes for his cult action film Oldboy. Cannes favorite Bong Joon-ho was first invited at the film festival in the same decade. His film The Host was screened at Directors' Fortnight section in the year 2006. He went on to receive an invitation to Cannes for several of his movies after this, one of which, Parasite, also managed to bag the Palme d’Or, the highest honour at Cannes in 2019. Meanwhile, several Korean films continued to win accolades in various categories, like Jeon Do-yeon for her performance in Secret Sunshine in 2007, Thirst won Jury Prize in 2009 and best screenplay award was won by Poetry in the year 2010.

Parasite’s historic Palme d’Or win 

Even after appearing in the competitive category since the year 2000, Korean cinema got its first Palme d’Or win only in 2019. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite made history by becoming the first Korean film to be conferred with the coveted honour. In addition to this, Parasite went on to win four Academy Awards for writing, directing, screenplay and international film in 2020. Like the director once said during his Golden Globe acceptance speech, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

The 'Man of Cannes’ Hong Sang-soo 

Hong Sang-soo is often referred to as the "man of Cannes." His second film, The Power of Kangwon Province (1998), won the Un Certain Regard Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors was requested to participate in the Un Certain Regard section in 2000. While Like You Know It All was invited to the Directors' Fortnight, a non-competitive part of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. 

Woman is the Future of Man and Tale of Cinema were in competition at the Cannes in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Then, in 2010, Hahaha won the Un Certain Regard prize, making Hong the third Korean filmmaker after Park Chan-wook and Im Kwon-taek to do so. After that, The Day He Arrives (2011) and In Another Country (2011) received invitations to Cannes. Hong is the only Korean director to date to have received invitations for more than half of his films to the Cannes Film Festival. No surprise he is referred to as the "Man of Cannes".