His major festival awards include the Golden Lion at 69th Venice International Film Festival for "Pietà", a Silver Lion for Best Director at 61st Venice International Film Festival for "3-Iron", a Silver bear for Best Director at 54th Berlin International Film Festival for "Samaritan Girl", and the Un Certain Regard prize at 2011 Cannes Film Festival for "Arirang". His most widely known feature is "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" (2003), included in film critic Roger Ebert's Great Movies. Two of his films served as official submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film as South Korean entries. He gave scripts to several of his former assistant directors including Juhn Jai-hong ("Beautiful" and "Poongsan") and Jang Hoon ("Rough Cut").