Actors Song Kang-ho (left) is making his eighth appearance at the Cannes Film Festival and heartthrob Song Joong-ki stars in the invited movie "Hopeless." (Yonhap News)

By Kim Hyelin

"Cobweb" by director Kim Jee-woon and "Hopeless" by Kim Chang-hoon have been invited to this year's Cannes Film Festival in southern France.

In a news conference on April 13 for the event's 76th edition opening in the middle of next month, the festival's executive committee announced the list of films receiving official invitations. "Cobweb" is in the Out of Competition category and "Hopeless" in Un Certain Regard, a section that introduces new cinematic trends.

Actor Song Kang-ho plays the protagonist in "Cobweb," which is about a movie director in the 1970s obsessed with creating a film masterpiece and struggles due to government censorship and an uncooperative cast. Stars Im Soo-jung, Oh Jung-se and Jeon Yeo-been also appear in this work.

At last year's festival, Song became the first Korean to win Best Actor for his role in "Broker." He will make his eighth visit to Cannes next month following the event's screenings of his previous films like "The Host" (2006), "Secret Sunshine" (2007), "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" (2008), "Thirst" (2009), "Parasite" (2019) and "Emergency Declaration" (2022).

The film noir "Hopeless" portrays Yeon-gyu (played by Hong Sa-bin), a young man who joins the mob to escape his hellish life after meeting Chi-geon (Song Joong-ki). The cast includes newcomer Hong and K-pop singer-songwriter Bibi.

This year's festival will run from May 16-27 in Cannes.

kimhyelin211@korea.kr