Korean cinema returned to the main stage at Cannes this year after a quiet stretch. On April 9, the Cannes Film Festival’s organizing committee unveiled its official competition lineup in Paris, and among the roughly twenty films selected was “Hope,” the long-awaited new film from director Na Hong-jin. It marked the first time a Korean film had competed at Cannes since “Decision to Leave” and “Broker” both screened in competition back in 2022.
The selection carries extra significance for Na himself. With “Hope,” he becomes the first Korean director to have all four of his feature films invited to an official Cannes section: “The Chaser” screened in the Midnight Screenings sidebar in 2008, “The Yellow Sea” played in Un Certain Regard in 2011, “The Wailing” showed out of competition in 2016, and now “Hope” has made the main competition itself, a nearly two-decade arc culminating in his most prestigious Cannes selection yet. “It’s an honor. I’ll work hard with the time I have left,” Na said of the news.
The scale of “Hope” reportedly made post-production unusually lengthy, so much so that Na nearly missed the festival’s submission deadline entirely. Cannes organizers extended the deadline specifically to accommodate the film, an exception they also made this year for director Kirill Serebrennikov, but not for other filmmakers. “Hope” follows the eerie aftermath of a report that a tiger has appeared near a remote outpost on the DMZ, marking Na’s first feature in a decade since “The Wailing.”
Cannes had another Korean milestone this year off-screen as well: director Park Chan-wook served as president of the competition jury, the first Korean to hold that role and only the third Asian juror-in-chief in the festival’s history, following Japan’s former NHK chairman Tetsuro Furukaki in 1962 and Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai in 2006. While “Hope” ultimately left the festival without an award, this year’s Palme d’Or going to the Romanian film “Fiord,” directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film reportedly fetched a record sale price at the Cannes market, the highest ever paid for a Korean film. “Hope” is set to premiere in Korean theaters this summer.
Source: Ra Hyo-jin, ELLE Korea, April 10, 2026; supplementary reporting from MBC News and industry coverage of the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
