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The 68th Cannes International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 2015. This year, best stars of Cannes are the Jury. In the official competition section, the jury presidents are directors Ethan and Joel Coen. It was the first time that two people chaired the jury. Alongside the brothers, a leading figure of fantasy films, Guillermo del Toro, and last year’s Jury Prize winner Mommy’s Xavier Dolan will also deliberate on this year’s official selection. France’s leading actress Sophie Marceau, actor Jake Gyllenhaal and actress Sienna Miller are also a part of this respected group.

 

 

The last French film to be selected for opening at Cannes was Lemming, starring Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg, in 2005. Ice and the Sky, directed by Luc Jacquet, was the festival's closing film.

 

French director Jacques Audiard was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 68th Cannes film festival for Dheepan. This film is about a trio of Sri Lankans who pretend to be a family in order to flee their war-torn country and are settled in a violent housing project outside Paris. Jacques Audiard took the runner-up Grand Prix for A Prophet five years ago and also competed at the 2012 edition with Rust & Bone.

Runner-up The Grand Prix went to Son of Saul. Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes’s first feature, this movie was taking audiences into a Nazi concentration camp and showing the Holocaust.

 

The Lobster has won Jury prize. The Lobster is a weird but well-received movie about single people who are transformed into animals if they don't find a mate. Best actor is Vincent Lindon of The Measure of a Man, Best actress are Rooney Mara of Carol and Emmanuelle Bercot of Mon Roi. A leading figure in Taiwan's New Wave cinema, Hou Hsiao-hsien took Best director. His film The Assassin is set in ninth-century China featuring Asian megastar Shu Qi as a female assassin. Mexican writer-director Michel Franco won best screenplay for Chronic about an end-of-life nurse played by Tim Roth. 

 

  
The Korean Film Council (KOFIC, Chairman KIM Sae-hoon) opened the yearly reception, ‘Korean Film Night’ in Cannes on May 17th. This event was organized to celebrate the Korean films invited to the 68th Cannes International Film Festival, while providing an opportunity for Korean filmmakers to network with the global film industry.

 

That evening was a success as the room overflew with 550 attendees, which was more than what was expected. Office’s director HONG Won-chan and actor BAE Sung-woo, Coin Locker Girl’s director HAN Jun-hee and actor GO Gyoung-pyo came on stage for a welcoming applause.

 

Important guests such KIM Dong-ho, honorary director of the Busan International Film Festival, and Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival’s KIM Young-bin were in attendance. Not only that, directors and programmers of various international film festivals such as Head of Cannes’ Christian Jeune and Charles Tesson, Venice’s Alberto Barbera, Locarno’s Carlo Chatrian, Tokyo’s Yasushi Shiina, and Hong Kong’s Roger Garcia made an appearance, along with Cahier du Cinema’s Stéphane Delorme among many. The festivities included Korean instant noodles and K-pop music, and the guests reacted with their two thumbs up.

 

At Cannes, the world’s best international film festival, the Korean Film Council not only held the Korean Film Night reception but also set up a Korean booth where international film professionals could come and find information about the Korean films screening at the festival.

 

The Shameless, Office, Madonna and Coin Locker Girl, four Korean films invited to this year’s festival. In the Un Certain Regard section, OH Seung-uk's The Shameless and SHIN Su-won's Madonna were invited while HAN Jun-hee's Coin Locker Girl is going to la Semaine de la Critique. In the Midnight Screening section, newcomer HONG Won-chan's Office was invited, bringing Korea's Cannes delegation.

 

The Shameless is a new film directed by OH Seung-uk. Director OH, a well-respected scripter Green Fish(1997), Christmas in August(1998), previously made the little seen but acclaimed Kilimanjaro (2000) and made the trip to France for his photo call along with leads JEON Do-yeon and KIM Nam-gil. After screening, the press and critics on site were all about JEON Do-yeon. The Hollywood Reporter said, “While boasting all the conventional stylistic trappings of film noir, The Shameless is that rarest of beasts in which the femme fatale – here played by the ever-bankable JEON Do Yeon – actually comes across more rounded and layered than the mail anti-hero,” Screen showed favor towards KIM Nam-gil’s performance, mentioning that “it is really KIM Nam-gil (The Pirates) who takes centre stage in this film and the detective is one of his strongest performances to date,”

 

Following the positive reception granted to The Shameless earlier during the Cannes Film Festival, Korea’s other Un Certain Regard competitor in 2015, SHIN Su-won’s third feature Madonna, bowed on May 20th to a raft of positive reviews. Madonna is the new film directed by SHIN Su-won, who was the first Korean female director to win prizes at both the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals. Screen Daily wrote that the film painted a “dark and unsettling portrait of the issues faced by Korean women marginalised by society.” Variety referred to the film as an “anguished cry against vicious class inequality and ingrained female abuse in South Korean society,”

 

Director HONG Won-chan’s Office was screened at the Midnight Screening. Midnight Screenings is a noncompetition section for thriller, horror, sci-fi and action films that are potential commercial successes. Director HONG exclusively adapted various kinds of stories for thrillers such as The Chaser (2008), The Scam (2009), The Yellow Sea (2010) and Confession of Murder (2012) before debuting as a director through Office. Office follows unexpected events among friendly people in a familiar place through its engaging development and story. Variety said, “Hong Won-chan makes a messy but effective debut with this hearty genre entertainment.”

 

Coin Locker Girl was screened as part of International Critics' Week. Coin Locker Girl became a highly anticipated film as it cast KIM Hye-soo and KIM Go-eun as its lead actresses. The film offers a refreshing and mesmerizing change with its conflicts stemming from it's all female hard-boiled noir cast, a rarity in Korean cinema. The Hollywood reporter comment “The film's most striking elements are its two lead actresses, who have great onscreen chemistry together.” Twitch was acclaimed as  “Coin Locker Girl Offers New Perspectives On Standard Thrills.”