Prominent filmmaker hails Iranian people after ‘Bread and Books’ wins at Busan
Korean award makes Majidi’s film eligible for Oscar race
Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi paid tribute to the Iranian people and dedicated the top prize at the 31st Busan International Film Festival to them after his latest feature, ‘Bread and Books’, won best film at the South Korean event.
“You are the real heroes of our films. Cinema is alive because of you, and we make films out of love for you,” Majidi said, IRNA reported on Thursday.
At the festival’s closing ceremony, Majidi thanked his family and the film crew for their dedication to the project.
The festival took place from October 6 to 15, 2026, in Busan, a city in southeastern South Korea, bringing together films from across Asia and beyond.
The victory also makes ‘Bread and Books’ eligible for consideration in the international feature film category at the Academy Awards under new rules linking the Busan prize to Oscar eligibility. However, the win does not guarantee an Oscar nomination.
The film centers on Davoud Solan, a contract teacher at a school in an impoverished village in the Chabahar region of southeastern Iran. Hoping to land a permanent teaching position and find a home for himself and his mother, Solan faces a major setback when a benefactor who had been paying for the students’ meals dies.
With the school’s future in jeopardy and its pupils at risk of losing their meals, he turns to fuel smuggling to keep the school running, forcing him to confront difficult moral choices. The story highlights poverty, educational inequality and the obstacles children in disadvantaged communities face in accessing education.
Majidi revealed that his mother, who died before filming began, had always been a source of support. He said her spirit and prayers remained with the film throughout its production. Her character was portrayed by a woman with no previous acting experience.
In dedicating the prize to Iranians, the director praised their enduring resistance to oppression and their pursuit of independence. He also voiced hope for a world free of war, where peace, love and brotherhood prevail.
Majidi also spoke about the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, southern Iran. The school was hit by a US missile strike on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran, killing 168 people, most of them children. Majidi said some of the children’s bodies had never been recovered.
He further added that during 40-day US-Israeli aggression, around 150,000 homes had been bombed and between 4,000 and 5,000 people had been killed in the strikes.
Majidi is among Iran’s best-known filmmakers on the international stage. His film ‘Children of Heaven’ earned an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film in 1999, bringing wider international attention to Iranian cinema. His other acclaimed works include ‘The Color of Paradise,’ ‘Baran’ and ‘The Song of Sparrows.’
His films frequently explore the lives of children and low-income families, placing people facing hardship at the center of stories about difficult moral choices and human dignity. These themes are also central to ‘Bread and Books,’ which portrays a teacher’s struggle to keep a school serving a disadvantaged community afloat.
The 2026 edition of the Busan International Film Festival featured 246 officially selected films from 59 countries, including 95 world premieres, according to the organizers. The festival also reached a new milestone this year after receiving A-list accreditation from the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations.