Moon Byoung-gon (Yonhap News)
South Korean director Moon Byoung-gon won the top prize for short films for "Safe" at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival on Sunday.
It marks the first time that a Korean film has won an award for a short film at Cannes.
"Safe," the winner of the Short Film Palme d'Or, draws a sad portrait of contemporary people through a female college student working part-time at an exchange booth in a gambling parlor and a gambling-addicted man.
"I'm bewildered and didn't know if I would win a prize. I'm all the more happy to receive this award because I completely had no expectation that I'd win," Moon told Yonhap News Agency after the awards ceremony.
No Korean feature film was invited for this year's event.
The 30-year-old director studied film at Seoul's Chung-Ang University and has director two shorts -- "No More Coffee Break" (2008) and "Finis Operis" (2011). The latter film was featured at Cannes in its Critics' Week in 2011. (Yonhap News)