Last Friday night, the 30th Busan International Film Festival ended with a closing ceremony that was also an awards ceremony. The event’s first-ever Busan Award was given to Chinese-Korean filmmaker Zhang Lu’s Gloaming in Luomu for Best Film. At the same time, actress-turned-filmmaker Shu Qui was awarded Best Director for her feature Girl, “a coming-of-age story based on her childhood.”
For this 2025 event, seven theaters in the South Korean city screened 329 films, ninety of which were premieres. Local stars like Blackpink’s Han Hyo-joo and Lisa and filmmaker Lee Byung-hun attended the festival on its opening night. Global stars, including Juliette Binoche, Milla Jovovich, Maggie Kang, Michael Mann, and Guillermo del Toro, joined them.
When BIFF announced the introduction of categories of Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor, some questions were raised. BIFF’s new festival program director, Karen Park, released a statement about the concerns: “When people heard [about the changes], the usual reaction was ‘Well, that will be challenging’, which usually means they think you can’t pull it off…But we’ve got people talking, which means we’ve got them engaged… I think we answered a lot of doubts and showed that we are not afraid of facing changes or making new adjustments to survive through this era.”
There have been other additions to the program, including a Carte Blanche section inviting “filmmakers and writers to pick any film they liked to screen and discuss, but now hopes in future editions to involve artists and entertainers.”
Korean filmmakers got their chance to shine at BIFF, with standouts including Yoo Jaein’s feature debut En Route To, which centers around “a schoolgirl [who] falls pregnant to a teacher and decides to keep the child,” and Lee Kwan’s Project Y, which follows two “wronged women out to set their world right.”
One of Indonesia’s most successful stars, Reza Rahadian, premiered his debut film, On Your Lap, at BIFF to critical acclaim. The feature centers around “a single mother’s plight as she struggles to make ends meet in a coffee shop with questionable serving practices, while looking for love.”
Chinese director Bi Gan brought his Cannes award-winning Resurrection to BIFF, the film described as “a lyrical paean to 100 years of filmmaking in his homeland.” BIFF certainly provided the cinematic experience for the film, with even after-screening Q&A sessions with Gan, who seemingly adored the experience. “I believe that being able to sit with many people in a theater and watch a movie together is a very special thing…Dreaming is usually done in one’s own space…However, movies are a feeling of many people dreaming together.”
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