At the 2022 Cannes Picture Festival, Hirokazu Kore-Broker, eda’s a Korean-language drama about an abandoned kid, illicit baby brokers, and temporary families, earned the Ecumenical jury prize for best film.

Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018 for Shoplifters, makes his first foray into Korean cinema with Broker, starring Parasite star Song Kang-ho as the “broker,” a lovable rogue who pinches an infant left by a desperate mother at a Busan Family Church’s “baby box” and tries to find her an alternative family.

They initially try to sell the infant with the help of another broker, Gang Dong-won. When the child’s mother, played by Lee Ji-eun, returns, the plot takes a turn for the worst.

The Ecumenical jury said in a statement, “The film shows, in an intimate way, how family can be family without blood ties,” added, “Lives and souls are being protected by a secure environment created by the three adults and an orphan boy around the baby, despite the many different tormented backgrounds.”

The Ecumenical jury, which includes members of the Christian cinema groups Interfilm (Protestant) and Signis (Catholic), chooses the best film from the Cannes competition that “best touches the spiritual dimension of our existence.”

The jury has a great track record of selecting films that go on to win top honours at the festival’s main event, having been awarded prizes in Cannes since 1974. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, the Ecumenical jury winner last year, won best script at Cannes and went on to win an Oscar for best international picture.

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