Park Chan-wook박찬욱

Park Chan-wook (박찬욱) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter and producer, and a former film critic. He was born in Seoul on August 23, 1963, and studied philosophy at Sogang University.¹ He has directed 11 feature films. After The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992) and Trio (1997), his third, Joint Security Area (공동경비구역 JSA, 2000), passed Shiri to become the most-watched film in South Korea at the time. He set up his own production company, Moho Film, in 2002, and made Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (올드보이, 2003) and Lady Vengeance (친절한 금자씨, 2005), known together as the Vengeance Trilogy. Stoker (2013) was his first English-language film, and he has directed two English-language TV series, The Little Drummer Girl (2018) and The Sympathizer (2024).¹

Abroad, Park has four wins on DabPop's count of Korean directors' top prizes at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, the Oscars and the Emmys, one fewer than Bong Joon Ho. Oldboy won the Grand Prix, the second-highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2004. I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (싸이보그지만 괜찮아) won Berlin's Alfred Bauer Prize in 2007, Thirst (박쥐) shared the Cannes Jury Prize in 2009, and Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심) won him Best Director at Cannes in 2022.² The Handmaiden (아가씨, 2016) won Best Film Not in the English Language at the 71st British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).⁴ In February 2026 he was named president of the Cannes jury, the first South Korean to lead it.¹

At home, Park's films have won Best Film at the Blue Dragon Film Awards four times: Joint Security Area in 2000, Lady Vengeance in 2005, Decision to Leave in 2022 and No Other Choice (어쩔수가없다) in 2025. That ties the record with Im Kwon-taek (임권택) and Kim Soo-yong (김수용), and Park is the only one of the three whose wins span 25 years. He was also named Best Director at the 2022 and 2025 ceremonies.³ No Other Choice premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival on August 29, 2025, and had drawn 2,938,283 admissions in South Korea as of February 26, 2026. It was nominated for three Golden Globes and, as South Korea's entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, made the December shortlist.⁵