Hong Sangsoo Wins Best Direction at Locarno as Kim Min-hee Shares Best Performance Prize

Overview

• Hong Sangsoo received the Pardo for Best Direction at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on Saturday and also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize for Nowhere to Lay My Eyes.
• Kim Min-hee shared Locarno’s Pardo for Best Performance with Monica Bellucci for her leading turn in Hong’s 35th feature.
• Critics at Locarno praised the film as a reenergized, sharper work from Hong that showcases Kim’s performance, and noted formal departures such as a brief voiceover and a topical reference to Gaza.
• The film is compact at about 72 minutes, centers on a woman who returns to Jeju to see her mother after ten years, and will play the New York Film Festival before a planned North American release by The Cinema Guild.
• The awards add to Hong’s long festival track record at Locarno and other major festivals and are likely to boost arthouse attention and the film’s visibility in upcoming U.S. and international bookings.