Woody Magazine 🎬 Film Edition Na Hong-jin's HOPE Breaks Korea's Four-Year Cannes Silence
On April 9 (local time), at the Pathé Palace in Paris, Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux announced the official Competition lineup for the 79th edition — and called out Na Hong-jin's HOPE. The words that followed raised expectations immediately: "Over more than two hours, the film shifts genres while telling a story unlike anything seen before." It was the first Korean film selected for the Competition section in four years, since Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave took the Best Director prize in 2022.
The significance runs deeper than a four-year gap. In 2025, not a single Korean film was invited to Cannes — in any section, official or otherwise. It was the first such blank since 1999, a moment that sent a ripple of anxiety through an industry already struggling through a prolonged box-office slump. HOPE's Competition selection doesn't just end a streak; it marks a return from one of Korean cinema's most sobering stretches in recent memory.
"Over more than two hours, the film shifts genres while telling a story unlike anything seen before."
— Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, Cannes Film FestivalFor Na Hong-jin, this moment is personal. He is the only Korean director whose entire feature filmography has been invited to Cannes — yet this is his first time in the Competition section. Each of his three previous films made it to the Croisette, climbing steadily in prestige with each entry.
The film is set in Hopo Port, an isolated village near the Demilitarized Zone. When rumors spread of a tiger sighting in the surrounding hills, the community is thrown into a state of emergency — and the people who go looking for answers encounter something far harder to explain. The cast combines Korean heavyweights Hwang Jung-min, Jo In-sung, and Jung Ho-yeon with international stars Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, and Taylor Russell, in a production built on a budget of roughly $36 million USD.
Adding another layer to the story: this year's jury president is Park Chan-wook — the first Korean filmmaker to hold that role at Cannes. The result is an unusual situation in which one of Korea's most celebrated directors will decide the fate of another's film. Whether that dynamic helps or complicates HOPE's awards prospects is a question the industry is watching closely. Cannes reportedly granted Na's team an extension past the March 23 submission deadline — a rare exception that signals just how much the festival wanted the film.
On the commercial side, US distributor NEON has already secured North American rights. The company has released six consecutive Palme d'Or winners, a track record that fuels further speculation. Yeon Sang-ho's GUNCHE was also selected for the Midnight Screening section, giving Korea two films on this year's official program.
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