Iranian Director Majid Majidi’s ‘Midday Meal’ Scoops Busan Best Film Award

Midday Meal, directed by Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi, won the Best Film Award at this year's Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which means it qualifies for submission to the Best International Feature category of the Oscars.
 
The film is a poignant drama about a rural schoolteacher attempting to feed the children at his school despite bureaucratic obstacles. It was produced by Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, also known as Kanoon.
 
BIFF’s seven-member jury, headed by Chinese filmamaker Zhang Yimou, chose Midday Meal unanimously from among 13 competition titles, describing it as “a simple, starkly powerful contemporary parable.” The prize comes with a cash award of $37,000.
 
When receiving the prize, Majidi asked: “What is the crime of our people? There is nothing except that our people want to be independent. They will stand firm until the end,” referencing the ongoing war and US strikes on a school in Minab.
 
BIFF’s Special Jury Prize was awarded to Ibuku (My Mother), from Indonesian director Eddie Cahyono, which traces the spiralling lives of a widowed Javanese mother (played by Christine Hakim) and her estranged daughter (Ayushita Nugraha).
 
Cahyono dedicated the award to migrant workers worldwide, telling the audience how his project first materialised as a script in Busan’s Asian Project Market more than a decade ago. The jury said the film “opens a window onto the raw reality of marginalised lives while delivering a deeply moving, lyrical testament to parental love and redemption.”
 
Taiwan’s Lee Yun Chan, returning to Busan competition for the first time in over two decades, picked up Best Director for To Be Ordinary. The film, co-scripted by Lee and Ginger Wang, follows a young web designer, who is paralysed in a scooter collision, and follows how his family responds to this life-altering event.
 
BIFF gave its Best Actor awards to Chinese actress Zhou Xun for Gu You’s The First Taste Of Loneliness and Japan’s Himeno Kashun for Shuichi Okita’s Satoko Always. The First Taste Of Loneliness also won the Artistic Contribution award for Li Danfeng’s sound design.
 
Meanwhile, the New Currents Award, for films from emerging Asian filmmakers, went to India’s Shashank Walia for Birds In The Dark (Hanere De Panchi). Walia wrote, shot and directed the black-and-white Punjabi feature, which moves between Punjabi, Kashmiri and Urdu dialects.

Korean director Lim Hayeon’s Beach Fictions received a New Currents special mention. Lim’s 145-minute debut replays a young woman’s seaside day in two diverging versions. 
 
Birds In The Dark also picked up a Songwon Vision Audience Award in Busan’s Vision Awards, recognising films in the festival’s Vision - Asia and Vision - Korea sections. Mongolia’s Zogsool was the big winner in those sections, taking four prizes (see below for full list of winners).  
 
This year’s Busan film festival reported its highest admissions in more than a decade with more than 200,000 festival-goers. High-profile international guests included Michelle Yeoh, returning to Busan for the first time in 15 years to receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award; Alfonso Cuarón, making his first official trip to Korea; Maggie Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Fan Bingbing, among many others.
 
Other award winners included Hong Kong’s Ann Hui, who was presented with the Camellia Award, recognising the contribution of women filmmakers to Asian cinema, and BIFF’s former chairman and co-founder Kim Dong-ho, who was presented with the Korean Cinema Award.
 
Busan is the only festival in Asia, and one of only six worldwide, where the top prize winner qualifies for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. The others include Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto. Earlier this year, BIFF was also classified as an A-list festival by the Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026:

BUSAN AWARDS:

Busan Award for Best Film: Midday Meal, dir: Majid Majidi

Busan Award Special Jury Prize: Ibuku, dir: Eddie Cahyono

Busan Award for Best Director: To Be Ordinary, dir: Lee Yun Chan

Busan Award for Best Actor: Zhou Xun, The First Taste Of Loneliness

Busan Award for Best Actor: Himeno Kashun, Satoko Always

Busan Award for Artistic Contribution: Li Danfeng (Sound), The First Taste Of Loneliness

New Currents Award: Birds In The Dark, dir: Shashank Walia

New Currents Award (Special Mention): Beach Fictions, dir: Lim Hayeon

BUSAN VISION AWARDS:

BIFF Mecenat Award (Asia): Agaar, dir: Yang Bo

BIFF Mecenat Award (Korea): Can I Talk To You?, dir: Yi Seungjun

BIFF Mecenat Award (Special Mention): A Woman Dancing On The Waves, dir: Choi Se-Dam

Sonje Award (Asia): Fatima, dir: Soroush Shahpouri

Sonje Award (Korea): Toe's, dir: Yun Taerang

Sonje Award (Special Mention): The Boy Who Fell To Earth, dir: Jung Jaeseo

NETPAC Award: Zogsool, dir: Sakhya Byamba

FIPRESCI Award: Zogsool, dir: Sakhya Byamba

Bishkek IFF-Central Asia Cinema Award: There Will Be Snow, dir: Chen Jianying (Story)

Face Of The Future Award: After The Song, dir: Kumamoto Ryohei

The Heart Of Eurasia Award: Ria, dir: Arvin Belarmino

Hylife Vision Award: Zogsool, dir: Sakhya Byamba

Hylife Vision Award: Selvi, dir: Sailesh Rathnakumar

IFFI – Vision Asia Award: The Cord, dir: Darkhan Tulegenov

Songwon Vision Audience Award – Asia: Birds In The Dark, dir: Shashank Walia

Taipei Film Commission Award: Selvi, dir: Sailesh Rathnakumar

Vision Of Jiseok Award: Zogsool, dir: Sakhya Byamba

Actor Of The Year: Won Hyangra, Beyond Love's Horizon

Actor Of The Year: Kang Seung-Ho, Cosmic Trace

DGK PLUS M Award: The Flower, dir: Kim Si-Jin

CGV Award: Full Moon, dir: Jeong Jihye

KBS Independent Film Award: Beyond Love's Horizon, dir: Park Songyeol

Critic B Award: Beyond Love's Horizon, dir: Park Songyeol

K-Movie Award: Full Moon, dir: Jeong Jihye

Jeong-In Award: Baler, dir: Oh Sehyeon

Citizen Critics’ Award: Baler, dir: Oh Sehyeon

Busan Cinephile Award: Birds Of War, dir: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak

Songwon Vision Audience Award – Korea: Full Moon, dir: Jeong Jihye

Documentary Audience Award: Recovery, dir: Im Yeonjeong

Flash Forward Audience Award: La Bola Negra, dir: Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi