Zhang Yimou will head the main competition jury at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, taking the lead role on a seven-member panel that will evaluate the 13 films chosen for the second edition of the festival’s competition section.
The Chinese filmmaker will be joined by a lineup drawn from across Asian cinema: Chinese director Bi Gan, Korean actress Moon Choi, Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, Korean director July Jung, Vietnamese producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and Kazakh actor Samal Yeslyamova.
The appointment places one of Asia’s most decorated and commercially successful filmmakers at the center of a competition section that Busan introduced in 2025 as part of a broader festival restructuring. This year’s jury will present Busan Awards in five categories: best film, best director, special jury prize, best actor and artistic contribution.
A major figure with a long awards history
Zhang arrives at the role with a résumé that spans top prizes at several of the world’s major festivals. His directorial debut, Red Sorghum, won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1988. He later won Venice’s Golden Lion with The Story of Qiu Ju and Not One Less, while his 1994 drama To Live took the Grand Prix at Cannes.
His work has also reached large global audiences. The Jet Li-starring wuxia epic Hero grossed about $177 million worldwide in 2002, and his 2023 historical blockbuster Full River Red earned $670 million globally.
Zhang also has a notable history with Busan itself: his romantic drama Under the Hawthorn Tree opened the festival in 2010.
The rest of the jury
Bi Gan joins the panel after a recent run that connects directly to both Cannes and Busan. His latest feature, Resurrection, won Cannes’ Special Award in competition in 2025 and later received Busan’s Artistic Contribution Award at the first edition of the festival’s competition section last year.
Moon Choi is part of the jury following performances in Anarchist From Colony and Our Body. She also appears in the Sundance-winning Bedford Park, which is included in this year’s Busan lineup.
Japan’s Kei Ishikawa brings credits including A Man, which won eight Japan Academy Film Prizes, as well as A Pale View of Hills, a Cannes Un Certain Regard title.
July Jung has taken all three of her features to Cannes: A Girl at My Door, Next Sohee and this year’s Dora. Tran Thi Bich Ngoc has worked for three decades across Southeast Asian cinema, with producing credits that include Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, The Third Wife and Glorious Ashes.
Rounding out the jury is Samal Yeslyamova, who won Cannes’ best actress prize in 2018 for Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Ayka. She has also previously served on Busan’s New Currents jury.
What happens next?
The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15. The Asian Contents & Film Market is scheduled for Oct. 10-13. During the festival, Zhang and the jury will decide the winners across the five Busan Awards categories for the competition section’s 13 selected films.