Majid Majidi's Midday Meal won Best Film at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, closing the festival on October 15. The jury, led by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, reached its decision unanimously.
The film follows Davoud Soulan, a contract teacher in a remote village in southeastern Iran. When a benefactor dies and the students' free lunches are threatened, Soulan turns to cross-border fuel smuggling to protect them. It is a social realist drama anchored in the ordinary weight of survival.
Zhang Yimou called it "the ideal film." In his acceptance remarks, Majidi dedicated the prize to "the brave heroes of Iran" and asked: "What crime have our people committed?" The prize carries 50 million won, approximately $37,180.
Under Academy rules, Busan's Best Film winner earns eligibility for the Oscar Best International Feature Film category without requiring official selection by its country's submission committee. Iran has already submitted Land of Angels as its entry for the 99th Academy Awards, according to Yahoo Entertainment, so Midday Meal holds an alternate route into the race.
Elsewhere in the awards: Lee Yun Chan took Best Director for To Be Ordinary. Best Actor was shared between Zhou Xun for The First Taste of Loneliness and Kashun Himeno for Satoko Always. Eddie Cahyono's My Mother received the Special Jury Prize. The New Currents Award went to Shashank Walia for Birds in the Dark.
Majidi, internationally known for Children of Heaven (1997) and Baran (2001), returns to this register with a film rooted in the same terrain that has defined his career: poverty, duty, and what it costs to remain decent in a life with no margin for error.
