One of the most talked-about movies at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was South Korean director Na Hong-jin’s genre-defying thriller Hope. Not to be confused with the 2013 film of the same name by another iconic Korean director Lee Joon-ik, Na’s Hope has been described as a high-octane mashup of horror, comedy, action and sci-fi (with aliens!).
Written, directed and co-produced by Na, the film stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon alongside Korean heavy hitters Zo In-sung and Hwang Jung-min (who also starred in Na’s acclaimed 2016 horror flick The Wailing).
Hope takes place in a rural village near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a strip of land that separates North and South Korea. When the local police chief (played by Hwang) is called to investigate a mutilated animal carcass, he soon realizes that a mysterious, superhuman creature may be rampaging through his town. What begins as a local inquiry quickly escalates into a brutal, gory confrontation of cosmic proportions.
‘Hope’ is the most expensive Korean film in history
Hope is the first Korean film to be invited to compete at the Cannes Film Festival in four years and marks Na’s first entry into the competition, though his previous films The Chaser, The Yellow Sea and The Wailing were all screened at Cannes outside of competition. Although Hope did not win the Palme d’Or—the top prize ultimately went to Fjord by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu—it still generated a lot of buzz before, during and after the festival. The film’s official teaser that distributor NEON posted on YouTube just last week has already racked up over 3.2 million views as of this writing.
With a reported budget of more than 70 billion won (roughly $46 million), Hope is the most expensive Korean film ever made, though its cost remains modest by Hollywood blockbuster standards.
Fortunately the film has already recouped half of its production budget, as it was recently announced that Hope had set a new record for the highest overseas pre-sale of a Korean film and secured distribution in over 200 countries and territories.
So far the film has garnered mixed reviews, with some critics finding the CGI to be rather lacking. That said, Na has stated that he and his team were still in the middle of post-production when they were invited to Cannes, so the movie technically isn’t even finished yet. (It’s also worth noting that compared with Hollywood blockbusters, South Korean films have generally had to work with more limited budgets, making complex visual effects especially challenging.)
The Korean film ‘Hope’ was invited to the 2026 Cannes Film Festival while still in post-production
Na initially turned down the invitation from Cannes because he and his crew were still deep in the post-production process for Hope. However, he eventually agreed to participate after receiving repeated invitations from the festival as well as an extension of the submission deadline. According to the production team, his decision to attend the 79th Cannes Film Festival was “made out of gratitude for Cannes’ repeated invitations at the most critical stage of postproduction.”
With the Cannes premiere behind him, Na has said that his focus will shift back to completing post-production and polishing the film. Hope is slated to be released in South Korea this summer and in the U.S. this fall.
Na shared with The Associated Press that “xenophobia and immigrant problems” were the starting point for his movie, which later developed into “a much bigger story.”
“In any big tragedy, they don’t necessarily arise from malicious intention. It all starts with difference in perspective,” he told AP. “I think it’s that conflict in perspective or misunderstanding that creates these collisions. That’s what I wanted to talk about.”
How the Cannes press conference for the Korean film ‘Hope’ resulted in controversy
The Cannes conversation around Hope took an uncomfortable turn after a journalist made dismissive remarks during the film’s press conference. The journalist—who failed to state her name and outlet, as is standard protocol—started her question by saying, “Hi Michael, hi Alicia. I don’t know the rest of you.”
She then proceeded to ask, “I’m just wondering if the director could say why he wanted to cast Michael and Alicia. Two actors for the price of one, maybe?”
In response, Jung and Russell (who is biracial) traded glances, while Hwang and Zo remained expressionless. Director Na seemed visibly taken aback by the question.
The incident sparked widespread outrage online, with many netizens calling out the reporter for being racist for not acknowledging the film’s director and actors of color, especially when name cards were clearly displayed in front of each panelist. Some also pointed out that the question was rude to Fassbender and Vikander as well (the two actors are married in real life), while others criticized the couple for not standing up for their castmates and director.
Though the reporter never shared her name, internet sleuths have determined that it’s Helen Barlow, an Australian freelance film critic based in Paris.
What other Korean films were shown at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival besides ‘Hope’?
Hope wasn’t the only Korean movie to be selected for Cannes this year. Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s new zombie thriller Colony (“Gun-che” in Korean), which boasts an all-star Korean cast that includes Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook and others, had its world premiere during the Midnight Screenings portion of the festival.
Dora, a drama written and directed by July Jung and inspired by Sigmund Freud’s case study of a woman whom he believed to be suffering from hysteria, premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section.
La Cinef, the festival’s competition for student films, selected merely 19 titles out of 2,747 submissions it received from film schools around the world. Two of the 19 films were created by young Korean filmmakers: “Bird Rhapsody,” an animated short by Choi Won-jung of Seoul’s Hongik University, and “Silent Voices,” a short film by Jin Mi-song (credited as Nadine MISONG JIN on the Cannes website) of Columbia University, which also won second prize in that category.
Famed Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, known for classics like Oldboy, No Other Choice, The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave, served as the head of this year’s Cannes jury, making him the first South Korean director to lead the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
Here’s a look back at some of the South Korean films that have made their mark at Cannes over the years.
