Jack Coyle
Associated Press Film Writer
CANNES, France (AP) — The 75th Cannes Film Festival named South Korean star Song Kang-ho the best actor for his performance in the Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda’s film “The Agent,” about a South Korean The story of a family finding a home for an abandoned baby.
“I want to thank everyone who appreciates Korean films,” said Song, who starred in Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite,” in Cannes three years ago.
Best Actress is Zar Amir Ebrahimi for her role as a journalist in Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which is A true crime thriller about a serial killer of sex workers in the religious city of Mashhad in Iran. Violent and graphic, “Holy Spider” was not allowed to be filmed in Iran, but was made in Jordan. Accepting the award, Ebrahimi said the film depicts “everything that is impossible to show in Iran”.
The closing ceremony on May 28 ended the Cannes Film Festival, which sought to fully revive the annual French event, which was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic and saw a small audience last year. This year’s festival is also set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which has sparked protests on the red carpet and conversations about the purpose of wartime films.
This year, Cannes’ biggest Hollywood films — “Elvis,” “Top Gun: The Maverick,” “Three Thousand Years of Desire” — screened outside the festival’s 21-film competition lineup. But their presence helped revive some Cannes.
