Right Now, Wrong Then, a bittersweet romantic comedy by Hon Sang-soo, has taken the coveted Golden Leopard prize at the 68th edition of the 2015 Locarno Film Fest.
Awarded the prize by an International Competition jury that included German thesp Udo Kier and U.S. helmer Jerry Schatzberg, the prolific South Korean auteur competed against new works from Chantal Akerman, Andrzei Zulawski, and Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Hong’s leading man Jung Jae-young also took Best Actor honors for the film, a structurally playful meditation on social graces and missed chances, in which the same romantic scenario plays out twice with markedly different results.
The win gives the low-key picture a healthy profile boost as it heads into further fest showings in Toronto and New York.
It’s not the first Locarno win for Hong, who won the Best Director award two years ago for Our Sunhi.