Zhang Yimou to Lead Busan Competition Jury

The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has confirmed seven jurors for its Competition section, with Chinese director Zhang Yimou serving as jury president for the section’s second edition.

Zhang has won prizes at each of the three major European festivals: the Golden Bear at Berlin for his 1987 debut “Red Sorghum,” the Golden Lion at Venice twice, for “The Story of Qiu Ju” (1992) and “Not One Less” (1999), and the Grand Prix of the Jury at Cannes for “To Live” (1994). His films have also picked up three Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe nominations. He directed the opening and closing ceremonies for both the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and remains active with recent work including “One Second” (2021) and “Full River Red” (2023), plus an upcoming adaptation of “The Three-Body Problem.” His history with Busan dates to 2010, when “Under the Hawthorn Tree” opened the festival.

Joining him on the jury is Bi Gan, whose “Resurrection” (2025) played in BIFF’s first Competition last year and won the Artistic Contribution prize; his earlier features “Kaili Blues” (2015) and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (2018) drew wide critical notice, the latter premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Actor Moon Choi, who has moved into directing and producing alongside her acting career, won Actor of the Year at BIFF in 2018 for “Our Body” and stars in and produced this year’s “Bedford Park.” Japanese director Ishikawa Kei, a graduate of Poland’s Łódź Film School, saw his debut “Gukoroku – Traces of Sin” (2016) screen at Venice, while “A Man” (2022) returned to Busan as closing film after its own Venice run and picked up eight Japan Academy Film Prizes.

Rounding out the jury are July Jung, Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and Samal Yeslyamova. Jung became the first South Korean woman director to have all three of her features invited to Cannes, with “A Girl at My Door” (2014) and “Next Sohee” (2022) both playing there before “Dora” (2026), which is also part of this year’s BIFF lineup. Tran, a Vietnamese producer with three decades in the industry, has backed films including “Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories” (2015) and “The Third Wife” (2018), and now runs the project market and DANAFF Talents program at the Danang Asian Film Festival. Yeslyamova, a Kazakhstani actor, won best actress at Cannes for “Ayka” (2018) and has a long history with BIFF, including a stint on its New Currents jury and a role in 2019 opening film “The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time.”

The jury will evaluate 13 films in this year’s Competition lineup. The Busan Award, presented across five categories, best film, best director, special jury prize, best actor and artistic contribution, carries total prize money of KRW110 million($80,350). Following BIFF’s recognition this year as a FIAPF A-list festival, alongside Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto, the best film winner now also qualifies directly for the best international feature film category at the Academy Awards.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival will Oct. 6-15, at the Busan Cinema Center and throughout Busan, with the 21st Asian Contents & Film Market held Oct. 10-13.