Hong Sang-soo's 'A Traveler's Needs' wins Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale

Director Hong Sang-soo receives the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for ″A Traveler's Needs″ during the awards ceremony at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Director Hong Sang-soo’s 31st feature film “A Traveler’s Needs” won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in Germany on Saturday.

Hong’s newest film, starring French actor Isabelle Huppert, grabbed the Berlinale’s second-highest prize at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.

This marks the fifth time that a film directed by Hong has won a Silver Bear prize at the Berlinale. Actor Kim Min-hee won the Silver Bear for Best Actress with “On the Beach at Night Alone” (2017), and Hong won the Silver Bear for Best Director for “The Woman Who Ran” (2020), the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay with “Introduction” (2021) and the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for “The Novelist’s Film” (2022).

“A Traveler’s Needs” tells the story of a French woman, played by Huppert, who travels to Korea and teaches a Korean woman to speak French and is about life's unbearable nature and the importance of communication. Huppert has collaborated twice before with Hong in “In Another Country” (2012) and “Claire’s Camera” (2018).

“I thank the jury for this prize,” said Hong during his acceptance speech at Saturday’s ceremony in Berlin. “I don’t know what they saw in my film exactly, I am curious. I especially want to thank Carlo Chatrian [the artistic director of the Berlinale] who has invited me to this event all these years. Thank you for empathizing with my films.”

This year’s Berlinale’s top prize, the Golden Bear, went to French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s documentary film “Dahomey,” about the return of 26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey to Benin.

A total of five Korean films including “A Traveler’s Needs” was shown at the 74th Berlinale, which began on Feb. 15 and closed Saturday. “The Roundup” Punishment,” the fourth installment of “The Outlaws” (2017) franchise, was shown in the Special Gala section, while occult thriller “Exhuma” was shown in the Forum section. Film “It’s Okay!” and the short film “Circle” were additionally featured at the Berlinale this year.

"It's Okay!" won the Crystal Bear for Best Film, an award given out by a jury of children. The film, a feature directorial debut of Kim Hye-young, was shown during the Generation K Plus section, dedicated to coming-of-age stories, and is about a high school student who gets kicked out of her home because of unpaid rent living together with a curmudgeonly choreographer.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]