Director Hong Sang-soo's 'In Front of Your Face' Wins Three Awards Including Best Director and Best Actor at Locarno Film Festival

Hong Sang-soo’s new film ″No Place to Rest″ won three awards at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland: Best Director, Best Performance, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize. The Best Director award went to Hong Sang-soo, the Best Performance award was given to Kim Min-hee and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, awarded to works containing spiritual messages about life and dignity, peace, and human rights, was selected by a jury from the Swiss Protestant and Catholic churches. ″No Place to Rest″ tells the story of Sang-hee (Kim Min-hee), the daughter of a divorced family, who heads to Jeju Island to find her mother after ten years. The film depicts Sang-hee’s encounters with her documentary filmmaker stepfather and his daughter, confronting the complex family relationships and unknown truths. The cast includes Kim Min-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, Shin Seok-ho, Park Mi-so, and Choi Myung-gil. Director Hong Sang-soo was invited to the Locarno Film Festival’s international competition section for the fifth time with this film. He previously won the Best Director award in 2013 for ″Our Sunhi″ and the Golden Leopard in 2015 for ″Right Now, Wrong Then.″ Kim Min-hee received the Best Performance award for ″Suyucheon″ in 2024, making this her second time winning. In her acceptance speech, Kim Min-hee expressed gratitude, saying, ″I am very thankful to the director who made such a beautifully poetic film,″ and shared that she wanted to share the award with her colleagues. She also mentioned her son, saying, ″My other colleague Sumi, thank you so much. I am with my baby right now.″ She added, ″This is the first film I shot after giving birth. During filming, I went to the set with my baby, had to breastfeed, and prepare baby food, so I was really busy preparing for the film.″ Director Hong Sang-soo said, ″I sincerely thank the selection committee for inviting my film and the jury for their warm interest.″ Meanwhile, this year’s Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival was awarded to Florin Șerban’s ″You Don’t Belong Here,″ and the Special Jury Prize went to Mateus Parias and Inoc Carvalho’s ″The Riverbank.″ ″No Place to Rest″ is scheduled for domestic release in the second half of the year.