It was an arguably predictable, if appropriate, victory for Majid Majidi's Midday Meal that closed the 31st Busan International Film Festival last Thursday after a record-setting ten days of celebrating cinema with panels, talks, masterclasses, and of course, films, films, films. More than 300 of the latter screened from 6th to 15th October at eight venues, most of them huddled conveniently close together at the busy festival hub with its impressive eponymous double cone structure and open-air stage. At this outdoor space called rooftop theatre, the awards went out to Majidi and his fellow honorees after a vibrant event surpassing the formerly front-running 2025 edition.
Across the fest, 315 titles from 59 countries brought together a wide selection ranging from mainstream fare like the shallow Isabelle Huppert vehicle All About Corinne to arthouse auteur works like Lav Diaz’s historical reckoning Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors and debut features by promising and not-so-promising newcomers like Sailesh Rathnakumar’s Selvi. The latter went home with two awards in one of the various side sections, trying to structure a selection so vast it’s almost arbitrary. In contrast, the main competition newly established in 2025 to gain the coveted A-List seal is reassuringly compact with 13 films. Among them, Indonesian Eddie Cahyono received the Special Jury Prize for his experimental mother-daughter drama Ibuku.
A Showcase for Asian Cinema
Its impressive lead actress Christine Hakim was the top candidate for Best Acting. Instead, the trophy went to Zhou Xun for her tender performance in the sentimental character triptych The First Taste of Loneliness—which also earned Li Danfeng a special award for her Artistic Contribution—shared with a visibly moved Himeno Kashun for Satoko Always. One of only four female directors present in competition, Lee Yun Chan won Best Director for her somber class conflict analysis To Be Ordinary. This might encourage the festival programming to shape their new competition category, which again had neither black, nor underclass, or out queer filmmakers, towards more equity and diversity.
Though the issue came up with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who presented her short feature Flesh Impact, the political focus was elsewhere: a little on Majidi who dedicated his award to the Iranian people resisting repression, and a lot on the South Korean historical thriller The Assassin(s). Its plot points about the 1974 assassination attempt on then-President Park Chung-hee, which resulted in the death of his wife, Yuk Young-soo, suggesting a JFK-like involvement of secret intelligence authorities, sparked a contentious debate on artistic freedom and filmmakers' political responsibility. Jury president Zhang Yimou made a point for the first time, defending creative expression against ideological restrictions that could intimidate artists.
Intimidation was palpable, with The Assassin(s) director Hur Jin-ho and cast canceling their public appearances due to safety concerns. Amid this controversy, the deeper ideological concerns carved into the international film festival sphere went all but overlooked. Abbas Kiarostami’s longtime cameraman and friend Seifollah Samadian, promoting his documentary homage On the Road with Abbas Kiarostami, praised the Iranian director accused of rape and plagiarism in a public talk while labeling the accusations “yellow press news.” At the very same spot, A Girl’s Story director Judith Godrèche, a leading personality of the French #MeToo movement, would discuss sexual violence and the lack of consent within skewed power dynamics.
An Open Beginning
This cynical coincidence reveals the blind spots of a festival which established itself as an A-list contender even without the outdated label, and builds its cinephile community upon an openness and collective spirit in sharp contrast to the elitist exclusivity of Venice, Cannes, and Karlovy Vary. Freely accessible events like talks and stage greetings allow people with little to no money to join. No dress code targets the very few underclass people who made it to the festival, and the communal atmosphere at the event itself is only matched by Locarno. Whereas Cannes issues red carpet bans, Busan celebrates its young volunteers on the red carpet, even before the potential winners.
At least in part, it is the absence of lots of international celebrities that supports this freedom where the focus is on films and the festival. No digital accreditations undermine the on-site experience, and what little online library exists is located right there, fittingly in an actual library. While the aged Eurocentric film festival audience laments the death of festivals, a young and curious audience at Busan, Shanghai, and Tokyo has the potential to revive the cinephilia that’s been replaced by intellectual prestige and social media status. Boosted by its most successful edition so far, Busan has to decide if it wants to follow the example of a conservative canon of A-list festivals or be itself an example in openness and inclusivity for them.
The award winners listed on the festival site.