Hong Sang-soo Returns to Locarno With Kim Min-hee

Hong Sang-soo is heading back to Locarno with another Kim Min-hee-led film, and this invitation carries more weight than a routine festival announcement. His 35th feature, the Korean-language film whose title roughly translates as There Is Nowhere to Look, has been selected for the International Competition at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, placing one of Korean cinema's most distinctive auteurs back in contention at a festival where he has built an unusually strong record.

The selection was confirmed by overseas distributor Finecut, which said the Locarno committee chose the film for the main competition lineup ahead of the festival's opening on August 5. For international viewers who follow Korean cinema beyond mainstream box-office titles, the news is notable because Locarno has long been one of the key global stages for art-house filmmakers, and Hong's relationship with the Swiss festival has repeatedly produced major prizes.

A Fifth Locarno Competition Run

This marks Hong's fifth time entering Locarno's International Competition. His earlier competition appearances there include Our Sunhi in 2013, Right Now, Wrong Then in 2015, Hotel by the River in 2018 and By the Stream in 2024. That history gives the new invitation a clear frame: Locarno is not simply introducing Hong to its audience, but continuing a long-running conversation with his films.

The record is unusually decorated. Our Sunhi earned Hong the Best Director award, while Right Now, Wrong Then won the Golden Leopard, the festival's top prize, as well as an acting award. Hotel by the River and By the Stream also brought acting honors, reinforcing how often Locarno juries have responded not only to Hong's spare directing style but also to the performances inside his tightly composed dramatic worlds.

The new film therefore arrives with expectations shaped by more than the names in its cast. A competition slot at Locarno can function as a career marker, a critical launchpad and a signal to international distributors and festival programmers that a film belongs in serious year-end conversation. For Hong, it also adds another chapter to a pattern that has made him one of the most consistently visible Korean directors on the European festival circuit.

Kim Min-hee Leads the Cast and Production Line

Kim Min-hee stars in the film, continuing a creative partnership with Hong that has become one of the most discussed in contemporary Korean art-house cinema. The cast also includes Kwon Hae-hyo, Shin Seok-ho, Park Mi-so and veteran actress Choi Myung-gil, who is working with Hong for the first time. That mix of frequent collaborators and a new senior presence gives the film an immediate point of interest for viewers familiar with Hong's recurring ensemble approach.

Kim's role extends beyond acting. According to the production details released with the invitation, she also served as production manager. Hong, meanwhile, handled directing, writing, cinematography, editing and music, maintaining the compact, author-driven production model that has defined much of his later career. For readers new to his work, that means the film is likely to carry a strongly unified voice rather than the heavily departmentalized texture of a large commercial production.

Kim has also built her own festival profile through this body of work. She previously won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2017 for On the Beach at Night Alone, and she won Best Performance at Locarno in 2024 for By the Stream. Those honors give her latest appearance in a Hong film more context: she is not being presented merely as a familiar face in his cinema, but as a performer whose work in these films has already been recognized by major European festivals.

Why Locarno Matters for This Film

Founded in 1946 and held annually in Locarno, Switzerland, the Locarno Film Festival is widely associated with auteur cinema, formally adventurous films and international art-house discovery. It does not operate with the same mainstream celebrity scale as Cannes or Venice, but its competition remains a respected space for filmmakers whose work depends on tone, structure and personal style rather than franchise momentum.

That identity fits Hong's cinema closely. His films are often built around conversations, repetitions, chance meetings and small emotional shifts rather than conventional plot escalation. For some viewers, that minimalism can feel disarmingly plain; for others, it is precisely where his films become absorbing, because seemingly casual exchanges begin to reveal layered questions about desire, memory, regret and performance.

Locarno's own comments on the new film, as relayed in Korean reports, point in that direction. The festival praised the way the film communicates the meaning, beauty and complexity of life through its images, dialogue and encounters, and described it as another example of why Hong is regarded as one of the major filmmakers of the era. The wording is restrained, but the implication is clear: the selectors see the film as an extension of the artistic language that has made Hong a recurring presence at the festival.

That endorsement matters because Hong's films tend to gather momentum through critical ecosystems rather than conventional publicity. A strong festival reception can shape reviews, sales, retrospectives and theatrical plans in art-house markets. Even without a mass-market campaign, a Locarno competition title can travel far, especially when it comes from a director whose catalog already has a devoted international audience.

A Career Built on Repetition and Recognition

The invitation also highlights the unusual pace of Hong's output. With this project described as his 35th feature, he remains one of the most prolific major directors in Korean cinema. That volume is not simply a number; it is central to how his work is received. Each new film is often read in relation to the previous ones, with critics watching for small variations in structure, casting, mood and self-reflection.

For international audiences, that can make a new Hong film feel like both a standalone work and another entry in a larger diary of artistic concerns. His repeated collaborations with actors such as Kim Min-hee and Kwon Hae-hyo have created a recognizable screen world, but new casting details, such as Choi Myung-gil's first appearance in one of his films, can alter the temperature of that world in subtle ways.

The Locarno invitation is also a reminder that Korean cinema's global identity is broader than genre hits, streaming dramas and K-pop-adjacent celebrity culture. Hong represents a different lane: low-key, dialogue-driven, formally economical and deeply tied to the festival circuit. His continued recognition abroad shows that Korean film's international reach is sustained not only by spectacle but also by directors whose work asks viewers to slow down and listen closely.

What Comes Next

The 79th Locarno Film Festival opens on August 5, when the film will enter a competition field watched closely by critics, distributors and cinephiles. The next key questions are whether the film can extend Hong's prize history at the festival, how Kim's latest performance will be received, and whether Choi Myung-gil's first collaboration with Hong becomes one of the film's talking points.

For now, the selection alone is enough to position the project as one of the Korean art-house titles to watch this summer. Hong has already won major recognition at Locarno, Kim has recently been honored there as a performer, and their new film is arriving in the festival's most important competitive section. That combination gives There Is Nowhere to Look a clear story before its first festival screening: a familiar creative team is returning to a place that has repeatedly understood its language.