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'Oldboy' receives Grand Prize at Cannes

"Oldboy" directed by Park Chan-wook won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, local time. The prize is considered second in line to the Golden Palm, which went to "Fahrenheit 9/11" directed by Michael Moore. It is the first time a Korean film received the Grand Prize in one of the three major film festivals.
"Oldboy" becomes the second Korean film to be awarded in the competitions following "Chihwaseon" directed by Im Kwon-taek in 2002. It is also the fifth movie to receive an award in a major film festival, following "The Surrogate Woman" by Im Kwon-taek, "Oasis" by Lee Chang-dong and "Samaria" by Kim Ki-duk.

"The Surrogate Woman" received the best actress award; "Oasis" and "Samaria" received the best director awards.

Director Park Chan-wook and actor Choi Min-sik, who received the Grand Prize at the 57th Cannes Film Festival, pose with actors Ashley Judd (the very left) and Kevin Kline (the very right),who starred in "De-Lovely", the closing film of the festival.

Keeping in mind that "Fahrenheit 9/11", which was awarded the Golden Palm, received attention all through the festival due to the U.S. military's mistreatment of Iraqi POWs, "Oldboy" actually received the highest evaluations from the jurors.

"Oldboy" was released last November in Korea and gathered about 3.3 million viewers.

It is exceptional for a "well-made" commercial film to receive a Grand Prize at a major European film festival that favors artistic movies.

This award is meaningful for Park as well. He set a box-office record with the "JSA - Joint Security Area" and now added to his resume with a prize from a major film festival. It is rare for a director to succeed both in receiving an award in a film festival and making a box-office hit. Director Im Kwon-taek is the only other Korean figure to achieve both.

Now the only desire left for the Korean film industry is in receiving the highest award in any of the three major film festivals and the U.S. Academy Awards. We'll have to see who will attain this long-cherished desire.

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