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Actress Jeon Do-yeon joins jury of Cannes Film Festival

April 29, 2014
Jeon Do-yeon

Jeon Do-yeon

By Baek Byung-yeul

Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon has joined the jury lineup of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which announced its full jury on Tuesday (KST).

Jeon, a star of several critically acclaimed films such as “Secret Sunshine” (2007) and “The Housemaid” (2010), joins jury president Jane Campion and other influential figures in world cinema, including Sofia Coppola, Willem Dafoe and Gael Garcia Bernal.  Chinese director Jia Zhangke, French actress Carole Bouquet, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn and Iranian actress Leila Hatami complete the list.

Previous Korean jury members at Cannes included late director Shin Sang-ok (1926-2006), at the 1994 event, and director Lee Chang-dong for the 2009 event. Lee was the director of “Secret Sunshine,” which won Jeon the best actress award at the 60th Cannes festival in 2007.

The 67th Cannes Film Festival is scheduled for May 14-25 with 19 films in competition. The jury will decide the winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or award and the main prizes such as best actress and best actor. Campion won the Palme d’Or for her film, “The Piano,” in 1993 and remains as the only female winner of the prize.

The films in competition for this year’s event includes Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner,” a life story of artist JMW Turner; Ken Loach’s “Jimmy’s Hall,” which dramatizes the deportation of a 1930s Irish activist; and Tommy Lee Jones’ period western “The Homesman.”

Jeon, 41, is one of those rare stars who successfully converted from a teen idol to serious actor. After gaining popularity as a television commercial model, Jeon debuted as an actress in 1993 with the MBC television drama, “Our Paradise 2.” Her breakthrough came in 1995 with the KBS melodrama “Our Sunny Days of Youth,” where she played the love interest of future “hallyu” star Bae Yong-joon.

Jeon made her film debut in the 1997 melodrama “The Contact,” which ended that year as one of the highest grossing Korean films ever made. She continued to enjoy success with “A Promise” (1997), “The Harmonium In My Memory” (1998), “You Are My Sunshine” (2005) before garnering international acclaim with “Secret Sunshine.”