Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s Midday Meal took home the top prize at South Korea’s Busan film festival on Thursday, claiming along with it automatic eligibility for the Oscars’ international feature category.
The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Asia’s largest, launched its first true competition section only last year. This year’s lineup featured 13 contenders — including a trio of South Korean titles.
A jury led by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) chose Majidi’s drama about a teacher in a poor Iranian village who is forced to turn to smuggling to keep his school afloat.
“I think it’s thanks to the love and energy my mother gave me before she passed away a few months before filming began,” Majidi said via an interpreter in accepting the award.
He went on to praise the Iranian people for having “never given up” despite the ongoing conflict with the United States, years of legal sanctions and a lack of access to medicine.
This year’s win carries special significance as the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in May revamped longstanding rules governing the selection of eligible titles for what was once known as the foreign language Oscar.
Winning one of a group of six film festivals, a list that includes Busan, Cannes, Berlin and others, now grants immediate eligibility.
The category had previously been limited to a single film per country chosen by an Academy-approved selection committee.
The broad list of contenders is then winnowed down to just five nominees.
Busan, long an incubator for Asian film talent, opened its 31st edition with a screening of director Kim Jong-kwan’s The Table: Day and Night, an intimate Korean drama.
Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh received this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year prize, while Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui received the Camellia Award for her contributions to empowering women in the industry.
A total of 315 films were screened at this year’s festival, with 246 officially selected titles making up its largest lineup since 2019.
The festival drew more than 200,000 visitors, organisers said on Thursday.
