Director Park Chan-wook got the biggest laugh out of the festival jury’s press conference on Saturday as the Cannes Film Festival came to a close.

Park Chan-wook, who led the jury as president, quipped that he struggled with the decision of which film should take this year’s Palme d’Or kudo.

“To be completely honest, I didn’t want to award the Palme d’Or to any of the films because it’s an award that I myself have never gotten. But I had no other choice,” Park Chan-wook said during the press conference with Demi Moore, Ruth Negga and other jury members.

Despite Park Chan-wook’s joke, the jury did deliver a verdict. The Palme d’Or went to Cristian Mungiu‘s complex moral drama “Fjord,” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. This makes the Romanian writer-director the tenth filmmaker to win the coveted award twice — 19 years after his first victory for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.”

Park Chan-wook is the influential helmer behind 2000’s “Job Security Area” and 2003’s “Oldboy” and many other films out of his native Korea. In recent years his profile has climbed in Hollywood with such projects as the HBO limited series “The Sympathizer,” starring Robert Downey Jr., and the 2025 drama “No Other Choice,” which had a strong arthouse run last year in the U.S. via distributor Neon.

Park Chan-wook’s films are no stranger to the festival. He most recently had a film in competition in 2016 with “The Handmaiden.” He also served as a jury member for the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

(Pictured top: Cannes jury members Ruth Negga, Park Chan-wook, Demi Moore and Isaach de Bankolé)