!['Best Picture' Park Chan-wook: "Though I am a director who did not win at Venice or the Academy... please believe me" [62nd Baeksang Arts Awards]](https://www.roundtimenews.com/uploads/2026/05/10/62nd-baeksang-arts-awards-8f00c053_800w.avif)
Park Chan-wook's film Nothing Can Be Done took the Best Picture trophy at the 62nd Baeksang Arts Awards on the afternoon of May 8, the director announced onstage at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
The ceremony, held at COEX and hosted by broadcaster Shin Dong-yup, actor Park Bo-gum and singer and actress Suzy, handed the film the top honor in the film category, and Park accepted with a speech that mixed gratitude with a defense of his film's tone. "Seeing the results, I am convinced that a fair judging process took place," he told the audience after receiving the award.
Park leaned into a line he repeated through the speech: "This film is full of jokes." He explained why that mattered to him personally and artistically: "I believe it is necessary to constantly attempt jokes even when sad, to try to make those around us laugh, and to keep making jokes that belittle oneself." He added, "That is how I think we can let off steam from anger and find an outlet," framing the film's humor as intentional and therapeutic rather than flippant.
The win at the 62nd Baeksang Arts Awards — one of South Korea's major entertainment awards ceremonies — was plainly presented onstage and immediately validated in Park's remarks. He did not shy from the international contrast: "Even though I am a director who did not win an award at the Venice Film Festival and was not even nominated for the Academy Awards, please believe me, as I am the director who received this glorious award at the Baeksang Arts Awards."
Those lines shaped the implicit tension of the night: a celebrated domestic honor set against the director's blunt acknowledgment of the film's reception abroad. Park's speech insisted that the Baeksang accolade represents a meaningful judgment by his peers at home, and he asked the audience to see the prize as such.
The hosts—Shin Dong-yup, Park Bo-gum and Suzy—presided over an afternoon ceremony that placed Nothing Can Be Done at the center of conversation for the moment. Park's repeated emphasis on jokes and on the fairness of the judging process made clear what he wanted this victory to stand for: not just a trophy, but recognition that the film's choices were deliberate and worthwhile.
Context matters: the Baeksang awards sit at the heart of South Korea's entertainment calendar, and Park's acceptance speech explicitly invoked the gap between domestic recognition and the film's earlier international trajectory. That contrast is not new to awards seasons, but Park framed the Baeksang result as corrective and as evidence that his film's blend of sorrow and humor had found an appreciative audience.
The friction in the moment—between the Baeksang honor and the lack of awards or nominations at Venice and the Academy Awards—was resolved onstage by Park's appeal to those present. He told the crowd to accept this award as an authoritative judgment: "Seeing the results, I am convinced that a fair judging process took place," he said, and he closed by reminding listeners of the Baeksang recognition when measured against international snubs.
For now, the clear consequence of the afternoon at COEX is simple: Park Chan-wook leaves the 62nd Baeksang Arts Awards carrying the Best Picture trophy for Nothing Can Be Done and a public argument that domestic recognition can stand on its own terms. He asked viewers to believe the Baeksang verdict; based on his speech and the ceremony's outcome, the event answered him — here, at least, the film was judged and rewarded.
