South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 79th Locarno Film Festival for Nun Dul Dega Eomne (Nowhere to Lay My Eyes), a family drama praised by the jury for its emotional depth and exploration of the difficulty of understanding one another.
The award, announced on 15 August, carries 10,000 Swiss francs in prize money funded by the Evangelical Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland. The four-member jury selected the film from 17 entries in the festival’s international competition.
“The film achieves extraordinary human depth in what is only seemingly superficial,” the jury said in its citation. It highlighted the film’s empathy and subtle humour, describing a story in which a family reunion creates possibilities for renewing relationships while exposing the distance between its members.
The film follows Sanghee as she accompanies her brother to visit their mother in the South Korean city of Jeju, her first visit in a decade. Their mother runs a successful restaurant, while Sanghee’s stepfather is making a film about a “grass grave” and his daughter has taken up painting.
According to the synopsis accompanying the announcement, the reunion unfolds through exchanges of family news, unsolicited advice and insincere compliments. On the morning of their departure, the other family members watch a film made by Sanghee.
In explaining its decision, the jury emphasised the questions the film raises about perception and storytelling: what people choose to notice, what remains unseen and how art can convey truth. It also singled out the dialogue for connecting everyday encounters with broader reflections on creativity and existence.
The jury was chaired by Germany’s Viera Pirker and included Finland’s Juha Rajamäki, Switzerland’s Sarah Stutte and France’s Jean-Luc Gadreau. Appointed annually by the Christian film organisations SIGNIS and INTERFILM, it brings together specialists in cinema, churches, theology and religious studies.
Claudia Campoli © Locarno Film Festival
Although invited by the festival, the Ecumenical Jury operates independently and judges films according to its own criteria.
Locarno established the first ecumenical jury at an international film festival in 1973, bringing Christian film organisations together on a single panel. Its latest award was announced on the closing day of the 2026 festival, which ran from 5 to 15 August.