Politics and artwork not in battle: Cannes jury head Park Chan-wook

Cannes: South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, who heads the jury for the 2026 version of the Cannes Movie Competition, mentioned he doesn’t consider that politics and artwork are in battle.

Talking early in a 50-minute opening press convention of the 78th Cannes Movie Competition right here on Tuesday, the celebrated director of ‘Oldboy’, ‘The Handmaiden’ and ‘Choice to Go away’, additionally distinguished political artwork and propaganda.

“I don’t suppose politics and artwork must be divided. It’s an odd idea to suppose they battle with one another. Simply because a murals has a political assertion, it shouldn’t be thought-about an enemy of artwork. On the similar time, simply because a movie isn’t making a political assertion, that movie shouldn’t be ignored,” Park mentioned.

He added, “Even when we’re to make an excellent political assertion, if it isn’t expressed artfully sufficient, it will simply be propaganda.”

On the movie gala, Park mentioned he’s ready to look at movies with the ‘pure eyes of an viewers member’.

“…with none prejudice or stereotype, simply pleasure to look at movies that can shock me,” he added.

The remarks come months after a serious controversy on the 76th Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition, the place jury president Wim Wenders sparked a debate by telling reporters that filmmakers ‘have to remain out of politics as a result of if we make motion pictures which can be dedicatedly political, we enter the sphere of politics’. His feedback triggered each on-line and offline backlash as greater than 80 business figures, amongst them actors Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, signed an open letter criticising the Berlinale for what they referred to as its ‘silence’ over the struggle in Gaza.

The 2026 Cannes Movie Competition will conclude on Might 23.