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Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux sat down a few hours ago to unveil the official selection for next month’s 68th edition of the prestigious festival. Though a number of slots have yet to be filled and with the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week sidebars yet to be announced, Korean cinema looks set to field a strong team on the Croisette this year. No Korean films have been announced in the official competition yet, but one will bow as a midnight screening while two will featured in the Un Certain Regard competition.

 

Screening in a midnight slot will be Office, the debut film from HONG Won-chan, who made his name as scriptwriter on NA Hong-jin’s The Chaser (2005) and The Yellow Sea (2008), and Confession of Murder (2012). A family is murdered and the homicide investigation focuses on an office in HONG’s film. PARK Sung-woong plays the detective while KO Asung, BAE Sung-woo and KIM Eui-sung feature as company employees.

 

Featuring in the Un Certain Regard lineup will be OH Seung-uk’s The Shameless and SHIN Su-won’s Madonna. OH was a prominent scriptwriter in the 90s, including on LEE Chang-dong’s debut Green Fish (1997), before making the acclaimed but little seen crime drama Kilimanjaro (2000). 15 years later, OH finally returns for his sophomore work, featuring Cannes Best Actress awardee JEON Do-yeon as woman who enters into a relationship with the detective (played by KIM Nam-gil) investigating a murder committed by her boyfriend. The killert is played by PARK Sung-woong, also in the aforementioned Office.

 

Director SHIN previously came to Cannes with her short The Circle Line in 2012, which netted her the Canal+ prize in Critics’ Week. Following her acclaimed works Passerby #3 (2010) and Pluto (2012), Madonna features SEO Yeong-hee as a nurse’s aide trying to organize an organ donation. The last time that a Korean film won the Un Certain Regard Prize was KIM Ki-duk’s Arirang in 2011, which came right on the heels of HONG Sangsoo’s win for HaHaHa in 2010. This year’s Cannes will take place over May 13th to 24th.

 

The Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week lineups will be revealed early next week while more official selection slots will be confirmed in the coming days.