Hong Sangsoo Tops Un Certain Regard

Hong Sangsoo accepting the award for best film in the Un Certain Regard section tonight in France. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

The new film by Hong Sangsoo, "Ha Ha Ha", won the top prize for a film in the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section tonight in France.

The film debuted last night as the Cannes festival headed into its final weekend.

Saying that the jury had too many good films to choose from, jury president Claire Denis announced the winners tonight on stage at the Debussy theater in Cannes. She presented the jury prize, or second place, to Daniel and Diego Vega's "Octubre" alongside jurors Helena Lindblad (critic from Sweden) Patrick Ferla (journalist from Switzerland), Dongho Kim (Pusan Film Festival, South Korea), Serge Toubiana (Cinematheque Francaise).

The jury also presented a special award to the three actresses -- Adela Sanzhez, Eva Bianco, and Victoria Raposo -- from Ivan Fund and Santiago Losa's "Los Labios" (The Lips).

In the words of an official description of "Ha Ha Ha": "Moonkyeong (Kim Sang-kyeong) decides to move to Canada and meets Joongsik (Yoo Joon-sang). The two find out that they were on a trip together and share their memories. Moonkyeong wants to be a movie director and meets a tour guide Seongok (Moon So-ri) who wants to live a new life in Korea."

The Cannes Film Festival will conclude tomorrow night with the presentation of the main jury awards, including the Palme d'Or and awards for best director, screenplay, actor and actress, tomorrow night in France.

indieWIRE will have live coverage of the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony on Sunday, May 23rd starting at 1 p.m. ET.