French Prize Bestowed on Acclaimed Korean Filmmaker
Acclaimed film director
BONG Joon-ho will be the second Korean citizen to have the honor of receiving the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal, a top artistic accolade in France.
BONG accepted the award at the opening ceremony of the French Cinema Tour in Seoul on Nov. 10th. In 2011, actress
YOON Jeong-hee was the first Korean person to win the prize following her acclaimed performance in
LEE Chang-dong’s
Poetry, which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 where it won the Best Screenplay Award. Other global recipients of the honor include American filmmakers Tim Burton and Jim Jarmusch, as well as actress Sharon Stone and musician Elton John.
Director BONG is currently involved in post-production on his sixth feature film
Okja. Financed and to be distributed by online streaming giant Netflix,
Okja is a Korean and English language project which features Hollywood talent such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Kelly McDonald and Paul Dano alongside Korean actors such as
BYUN Hee-bong,
YOON Je-moon,
CHOI Woo-shik and new actress AHN Seo-hyeon, who was selected following an extensive audition process.