Majid Majidi’s Iranian drama Midday Meal won the Busan Award for best film at the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) on Thursday (October 15) as the festival reported its biggest audience figures since 2015.
The film, about a teacher who becomes an oil smuggler to save his village school, wins a prize of $37,000 (KRW50m) and qualifies for submission to the Academy Awards in the best international feature film category. BIFF is the only Asia-based festival to offer such an incentive.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The trophy was presented by Zhang Lu, director of last year’s inaugural Competition winner Gloaming In Luomu, and jury president Zhang Yimou.
Taking to the stage at the Busan Cinema Center, Majidi expressed gratitude for receiving the honour in his first visit to South Korea. “The hero of our films is the audience,” he said. “It’s because of you that cinema is alive.” He dedicated the award to the “brave people of Iran” who are “still resisting against oppression” and “never give up”.
The film marks the first time Majidi has been invited to Busan, having previously played Cannes, Berlin and Venice over the past 35 years. He is Iran’s most submitted filmmaker to the international category of the Academy Awards, landing a nomination in 1999 with Children Of Heaven and making the shortlist in 2021 with Sun Children.
The ceremony also saw Taiwan’s Lee Yun Chan win best director for To Be Ordinary, a drama which follows the challenges a young man and his family face after he becomes paralysed in a car accident. The filmmaker was last at BIFF more than 20 years ago with debut The Shoe Fairy. Fellow Taiwanese filmmaker Shu Qi won the same award last year for Girl and was in attendance at tonight’s ceremony.
The special jury prize went to Ibuku, a mother-daughter drama by Indonesian filmmaker Eddie Cahyono. It proved a full circle moment for the director, who first presented the film at Busan’s Asian Project Market in 2015.
The Busan awards for best actor went to China’s Zhou Xun for her performance in Gu You’s The First Taste Of Loneliness and Japanese newcomer Kashun Himeno for her debut on-screen role in Shuichi Okita’s Satoko Always.
The First Taste Of Loneliness also picked up the Busan award for artistic contribution which went to sound designer Li Danfeng. His credits include 2025’s Resurrection, directed by BIFF Competition jury member Bi Gan.
Indian filmmaker Shashank Walia won the New Currents Award with his feature debut Birds In The Dark, the story of a police informant and the journey he takes with a man in his custody. It is the film’s second win at Busan after it was awarded the Songwon Vision Audience Award – Asia at a ceremony yesterday.
Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou presided over the Competition section jury, which also included Chinese director Bi Gan, South Korean actor Moon Choi, Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, Korean director July Jung, Vietnamese producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and Kazak actor Samal Yeslyamova.
The festival’s Vision Awards – for rising independent Asian filmmakers, playing in its Vision-Asia and Vision-Korea sections – were unveiled at a ceremony yesterday, led by Mongolian satire Zogsool by Sakhya Byamba.
Biggest attendance since 2015
A final report from BIFF revealed that total admissions to this year’s festival reached 200,043 – a 13.7% increase and more than 24,000 people than 2025 – to its total selection of 315 films (246 in official selection). This ranks as the festival’s biggest audience since 2015. A further 76,984 participants attended events held throughout Busan over the 10-day festival.
Organisers put the increase down to opening a day earlier than usual, with the festival beginning on a Tuesday rather than Wednesday, and an expanded screening programme.
The report also stated that the 21st Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), which ran alongside the festival from October 10-13, drew a record 30,484 participants – up 1.5% on 2025.A total of 1,266 companies and 3,158 industry professionals from 58 countries attended, all slightly up on last year.
At the Busan Exhibitor and Convention Center (Bexco), ACFM hosted 339 companies from 32 countries across 129 booths. The market itself hosted 339 companies from 32 countries across 129 booths. This included 20 pavilions, with Czech, Slovak and Cambodia pavilions joining for the first time.
The Asian Project Market hosted 30 upcoming titles, with industry awards led by Tribeny Rai’s A Chronicle of Minor Things and Indonesian project Goldfish.
It marked the first year BIFF has taken place as an A-list festival, after gaining the status in March from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), joining the likes of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto.
Busan Awards 2026
Best film
Midday Meal, dir. Majid Majidi (Iran)
Best director
Lee Yun Chan, To Be Ordinary (Taiwan)
Special jury award
Ibuku, dir. Eddie Cahyono (Indo-Japan)
Best actor
Zhou Xun, The First Taste Of Loneliness (China)
Kashun Himeno, Satoko Always (Japan)
Artistic contribution award
Li Danfeng, sound director, The First Taste Of Loneliness (China)
BIFF Awards
New Currents award
Birds In The Dark, Shashank Walia (India)
BIFF Mecenat Award (Asia)
Agaar, dir. Yang Bo (China-Fr)
BIFF Mecenat Award (Korea)
Can I Talk To You?, dir. Yi Seungjun
Special mention: A Woman Dancing On The Waves, dir. Choi Se-dam
Sonje Award (Asia)
Fatima, dir. Soroush Shahpouri (Iran
Sonja Award (Korea)
Toe’s, dir. Yun Taerang
Special mention: The Boy Who Fell To Earth, dir. Jung Jaeseo
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