Zhang Yimou to Lead Busan Film Festival Competition Jury

Chinese filmmaking legend Zhang Yimou will preside over the main competition jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, leading a seven-member panel of prominent filmmakers, actors and producers from across Asia.

Joining Zhang are Chinese auteur Bi Gan, Korean actress Moon Choi, Japanese director Kei Ishikawa, Korean filmmaker July Jung, Vietnamese producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and Kazakh actor Samal Yeslyamova. The group will judge the 13 films selected for the second edition of Busan’s new main competition section.

Zhang is inarguably one of Asia’s most artistically decorated and commercially successful filmmakers. His directorial debut, Red Sorghum, won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1988, while The Story of Qiu Ju and Not One Less later took the Golden Lion in Venice. His 1994 drama To Live won the Grand Prix at Cannes. His commercial reach has been just as formidable: the Jet Li-starring wuxia epic Hero grossed about $177 million worldwide in 2002, while his 2023 historical blockbuster Full River Red earned $670 million globally. Zhang also has longstanding ties to Busan, with his romantic drama Under the Hawthorn Tree opening the festival in 2010.

The jury also includes one of China’s most acclaimed young auteurs in Bi, whose latest feature, Resurrection, won Cannes’ Special Award in competition in 2025 before taking Busan’s Artistic Contribution Award at the inaugural edition of the festival’s competition section last year.

Moon, meanwhile, is known for performances in Anarchist From Colony and Our Body, as well as the Sundance-winning Bedford Park, which is also selected for this year’s Busan lineup. Ishikawa’s credits include A Man, winner of eight Japan Academy Film Prizes, and the well-regarded Cannes Un Certain Regard title A Pale View of Hills.

Jung has brought all three of her features — A Girl at My Door, Next Sohee and this year’s Dora — to Cannes. Tran has spent three decades working across Southeast Asian cinema, with producing credits including Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, The Third Wife and Glorious Ashes. Yeslyamova won Cannes’ best actress prize for Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Ayka in 2018 and previously served on Busan’s New Currents jury.

Busan launched its Competition section in 2025 as part of a broader restructuring of the festival. This year’s jury will hand out the Busan Awards in five categories: best film, best director, special jury prize, best actor and artistic contribution.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, with the Asian Contents & Film Market taking place Oct. 10-13.