Jeon Do-yeon

Following the heel of the Cannes' win, Jeon went on to sweep domestic awards, winning Best Actress at multiple film award ceremonies such as the 28th Blue Dragon Film Awards.

She won numerous awards through the work, including Best New Actress at the 35th Grand Bell Awards and 18th Blue Dragon Film Awards.

She also won Best Actress at the 35th Baeksang Arts Awards for her role in A Promise and several other local film awards for her role in Happy End.

Countdown premiered at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival.

In recognition of her contribution to the development of the Korean film industry, she was honored with the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Special Achievement Award at the 44th Grand Bell Awards.

Although the film itself, which debuted at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, evoked widely differing assessments from international critics, Jeon's performance was universally praised, and she was chosen as the Best Actress by the Cannes jury, making her the first Korean ever to receive an acting award at Cannes.

She also won Best Performance by an Actress at the 1st Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Jeon came back to Cannes once again as the film was chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.

Jeon Do-yeon (born February 11, 1973) is a South Korean actress.

Jeon Do-yeon was born on February 11, 1973, in Namgajwa-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

She has two older brothers and is the youngest in her family.

Born and raised in Seoul, she graduated from Bukgajwa Elementary School, Yeonhee Girls Middle School, Changduk Girls High School and Department of Broadcasting at Seoul Institute of the Arts.

In 1990, Jeon made her debut in the entertainment industry as an advertisement model for Johnson & Johnson.

She made her acting debut in television series Our Heaven in 1992.

She then continued to play supporting roles in Scent of Love (1994) and General Hospital (1994) and Love is Blue (1995), but struggled to receive any significant attention.

In 1995, she gained some recognition after playing the heroine's younger sister in KBS2's hit drama Our Sunny Days of Youth, which recorded its highest viewership rating of 62.7 percent.

The drama's director, Jeon San PD, made a remark stating that Jeon Do-yeon is a "tough and ambitious newcomer".

The following years, she played major roles in multiple dramas such as Project, Way Station and Until We Can Love in 1996, and Star in My Heart in 1997.

Jeon spent five years starring in television dramas before achieving instant star status with her feature film debut acting alongside Han Suk-kyu in 1997 film The Contact, which became the second-highest grossing Korean film of that year.

From 1997 after the success of The Contact, Jeon emerged as a prominent actress in the Korean film industry and went on to establish a reputation as a "chameleon" who can take on a wide variety of roles, from her performance as a doctor in the hit melodrama A Promise, which won her Best Actress at the 35th Baeksang Arts Awards, to that of a schoolgirl in the 1999 film The Harmonium in My Memory, then a wife having an adulterous affair in the 1999 film Happy End.

In 1999 and 2000, she received Best Actress awards at numerous award ceremonies such as the 20th Blue Dragon Film Awards and the 37th Grand Bell Awards for her performance in The Harmonium in My Memory.

In 2001, she played a bank teller in Park Heung-sik's directorial debut I Wish I Had a Wife.

After starring as the tough-talking Soo-jin in Ryoo Seung-wan's No Blood No Tears in 2002, Jeon spent time acting in the television series Shoot for the Stars.

In 2003, she found box-office success in E J-yong's Untold Scandal, an adaptation of the famous French novel Dangerous Liaisons set in Joseon.

The following year, she reunited with director Park Heung-sik in a dual role for the time-bending melodrama film My Mother, the Mermaid.

In 2005, Jeon played a prostitute who contracts AIDS in Park Jin-pyo's hard-hitting melodrama You Are My Sunshine.

The film was a box-office hit, and her performance received critical acclaim and won her numerous acting awards.

She then returned to the small screen with Lovers in Prague, a drama that tells the love story between the president's daughter and an ordinary detective.

The drama was a huge success, with average viewership ratings of over 27 percent.

For the work, Jeon won the Grand Prize (Daesang) at 2005 SBS Drama Awards.

Commenting on her successful year, The Korea Herald noted, "It is rare for a movie and a drama with the same leading actor or actress to become major hits at the same time. And often, actors and actresses avoid such cases, due to the risk of confusing audiences, but Jeon managed to pull both roles off perfectly without causing any confusion in the audience."

She won Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, making her the first Korean actress to win an acting award at Cannes, and Best Performance by an Actress at the 1st Asia Pacific Screen Awards for her performance in Lee Chang-dong's 2007 film Secret Sunshine.

Many young actresses have cited Jeon as a role model.

In 2007, Jeon starred in Lee Chang-dong's melodrama Secret Sunshine, which propelled her to international recognition.

Her fierce and fearless portrayal of a widowed mother who struggles to rearrange her life after the tragic deaths of her husband and son received universal critical acclaim.

Post-Cannes, she starred in 2008 film My Dear Enemy, playing an unemployed single woman who reacquaints herself with her ex-boyfriend.

After starring in My Dear Enemy, Jeon gave birth to a daughter and rested for a while.

In October 2009, she was honored by the French government with the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal for her contribution to the arts.

The following year, she returned to star in Im Sang-soo's 2010 controversial remake The Housemaid.

In 2011, Jeon played a female con artist who risks her life for ten days for a final deal with a cold-hearted debt collector in Countdown.