Majid Majidi’s Midday Meal has emerged as one of the biggest international film stories of the season after winning the top prize at the Busan International Film Festival. The Busan International Film Festival victory not only cements the Iranian drama’s critical momentum, but also places it in a strong position on the road to the Academy Awards.
The film’s Best Film win at Busan means Midday Meal automatically qualifies for submission in the Oscars’ Best International Feature category, an important step for any title hoping to turn festival acclaim into awards-season visibility. For Majidi, the honor marks another major milestone in a career already respected worldwide for emotionally resonant cinema.
Midday Meal wins top honor at the Busan International Film Festival
The biggest headline from this year’s Busan International Film Festival was the triumph of Midday Meal, which took home the Best Film Award at the event’s closing ceremony. Directed by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi, the film stood out in a competitive field and immediately became one of the festival’s defining titles.
The significance of the award goes beyond prestige. In practical terms, the Busan win gives Midday Meal an automatic qualifying route for Oscars consideration in the Best International Feature race. That kind of launchpad matters in a crowded global marketplace where festival recognition often determines which films break through to wider audiences.
Why the Busan win matters
- It gives the film major international visibility.
- It strengthens awards-season credibility ahead of Oscar submissions.
- It reinforces Busan’s influence as a tastemaker for Asian and global cinema.
- It introduces the film to buyers, programmers and critics beyond the festival circuit.
What Midday Meal is about
Set in a dry, unforgiving village landscape, Midday Meal centers on a school teacher fighting to keep his school open after the death of a benefactor. The lead role is played by Mohammad Rahimi, whose character becomes the emotional anchor of a story shaped by hardship, duty and survival.
The premise reflects many of the qualities associated with Majidi’s filmmaking: moral struggle, social realism and intimate human drama. Rather than relying on spectacle, Midday Meal appears to draw its power from everyday stakes — education, community support and the quiet determination of a person trying to hold something valuable together as resources disappear.
For audiences familiar with Majidi’s earlier work, the film’s setting and themes fit naturally within his broader cinematic voice. His films have long explored dignity under pressure, and Midday Meal seems to continue that tradition with a story rooted in loss, resilience and social need.
Majid Majidi’s return to the global awards conversation
Majid Majidi is no stranger to international recognition. The Iranian director is best known globally for Children of Heaven, a film that helped establish him as one of the most admired filmmakers working in humanist cinema. With Midday Meal, he now returns to the center of festival conversation at a moment when international features are attracting more worldwide attention than ever.
This year also marked Majidi’s first visit to the Busan International Film Festival, where he personally presented the film. That debut added symbolic weight to the win, linking an established auteur with one of Asia’s most influential film events.
For awards watchers, the victory could make Midday Meal a title to follow closely in the months ahead, especially if it gains traction with national selection committees, critics groups and major international distributors.
Other major winners at Busan
While Midday Meal took the festival’s top award, several other films and artists also made a strong impression across the program.
Notable Busan award winners
- Special Jury Prize: Ibuku by Indonesian filmmaker Eddie Cahyono
- Best Director: Lee Yun Chan for To Be Ordinary
- Best Actor: Zhou Xun for The First Taste of Loneliness
- Best Actor: Kashun Himeno for Satoko Always
- Artistic Contribution: Li Danfeng for sound in The First Taste of Loneliness
- New Currents Award: Birds In The Dark by Shashank Walia
The broad range of winners highlights Busan’s continued role in elevating voices from across Asia. From Iranian drama and Indonesian storytelling to Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi and Korean cinema, the festival showcased the diversity and creative depth of the region’s film culture.
Busan’s growing influence on global cinema
This year’s Busan International Film Festival also posted strong attendance figures, reporting more than 200,000 audience members across its core festival and related programs. That marks its highest film audience since 2015, with tens of thousands more attending special events and industry activities.
Those numbers underline Busan’s expanding relevance, not just as a film festival for premieres, but as a major cultural and market hub. Industry activity at the Asian Contents & Film Market also reflected that momentum, with thousands of participants and companies from dozens of countries attending.
High-profile guests further elevated the event’s international standing. Filmmakers and stars including Alfonso Cuarón, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fan Bingbing, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Michelle Yeoh all helped make this year’s edition one of the most visible in recent memory.
What’s next for Midday Meal?
After its major Busan breakthrough, the next question is whether Midday Meal can convert festival prestige into a sustained awards campaign. Much will depend on its official Oscar submission path, critical reception beyond the festival and whether it secures the right platform for international release.
Still, the ingredients are there: a respected director, a socially grounded story, strong festival validation and a clear emotional hook. In a competitive international field, those factors can make all the difference.
If momentum continues, Midday Meal may become one of the most talked-about world cinema titles of the year — and a reminder that some of the most powerful films begin with intimate stories told with clarity and compassion.
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Conclusion
Midday Meal winning Best Film at the Busan International Film Festival is more than a festival headline — it is a meaningful launch into the global awards conversation. For Majid Majidi, the win confirms his enduring relevance; for audiences, it signals a film worth watching closely as the Oscars race develops.
