Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s “Midday Meal” won the Busan Award for best film Thursday at the Busan International Film Festival, earning automatic eligibility for the Oscars’ international feature category.
The win carries a $37,000 prize. It places Busan beside Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto as festivals whose top prize qualifies a film for Oscar submission, in only the second year of its best-film competition. Fourteen Asian films competed this year, 12 of them world premieres.
The drama follows a rural teacher, played by Mohammad Rahimi, who battles to keep his village school open after the death of a benefactor. To save the school, he becomes an oil smuggler. The 129-minute film was shot in southern Iran with a local cast of no established stars, and the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults funded it. Majidi said every face onscreen belongs to a nonprofessional actor found through street casting.
The film marks Majidi’s first invitation to Busan after 35 years of showing work at Cannes, Berlin and Venice. He said he first planned to decline the invitation, then went to speak about the war’s toll on ordinary Iranians. On stage, he dedicated the prize to the “brave people of Iran.” At the Oct. 9 premiere he also remembered children from the town of Minab, saying they died on the first day of the war with the United States and Israel. Majidi said he conceived the film before that war began in February.
Critics have responded warmly. One review called it a touching drama that centers on the right to food and the failure of institutions to provide it. Majidi’s earlier “Children of Heaven” holds a place in Oscar history. The 1997 film earned the first Iranian nomination in the foreign-language category.
The festival itself enjoyed a strong finish. Organizers reported over 200,000 attendees across the main program and its community and online strands, the highest film audience since 2015. Another 77,000 people attended special events.
For Majidi, 11 features into his career, the prize arrives with political weight attached. The film’s themes of scarcity and neglect shaped its reception, and his remarks added a wartime dimension. Whether “Midday Meal” ultimately reaches an Oscar ballot will depend on the submission process, though the Busan win clears one hurdle.
