Na Hongjin To Head Busan’s Competition Jury; Tony Leung Ka-fai & Nandita Das Among Jury Members
Written by admin on September 3, 2025
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced the seven members of the jury for its first ever fully fledged competition section, which will be headed by Korean filmmaker Na Hongjin.
Also on the jury are Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai; Indian actor and filmmaker Nandita Das; Iranian New Wave director Marziyeh Meshkiny; US-based filmmaker Kogonada (Columbus, After Yang); Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara, and Korean actor Han Hyo-joo.
BIFF, which is taking place September 17-26, recently announced the 14 titles that will compete in the inaugural competition section. The jury will hand out Busan Award prizes in five categories: Best Film, Best Director, Special Jury Prize, Best Actor, and Artistic Contribution.
BIFF Festival Director Jung Hanseok said: “Since this is a newly launched section, we sought to appoint jury members with discerning eyes, bold perspectives, and international influence. To broaden the scope of deliberation, the Busan International Film Festival has expanded the panel from five to seven members this year. I am genuinely looking forward to seeing which of the year’s most outstanding Asian films will be selected by these distinguished members, led by Jury President Na Hong-Jin.”
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Na’s credits span new generation works from The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010) to occult thriller The Wailing (2016) and Thai-Korean co-production The Medium (2021). He is currently in post-production on Hope, starring Hwang Jung-min and Zo In-sung and featuring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.
Leung was recently in Cannes with Juno Mak’s Sons Of The Neon Night and has a long list of credits including Ashes Of Time (1994), Election (2005), Bodyguards And Assassins (2009), Cold War (2012) and current mainland China box office hit The Shadow’s Edge (2025).
Das has acted in more than 40 features, including Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) and Earth (1998), while her work as a director includes Firaaq (2008), Manto (2018) and Zwigato (2022).
Meshkiny, a graduate of the Makhmalbaf Film School, made her directing debut with Venice and Busan award-winning drama The Day I Became A Woman (2000) and more recently directed Stray Dogs (2004) and The Man Who Came With The Snow (2009).
In addition to directing features Columbus and After Yang, Kogonada directed drama series Pachinko (2022) for Apple TV+ and the feature film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025), starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, which is scheduled for US release on September 19.
Bhara has producing credits including Makbul Mubarak’s Autobiography (2022), Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes (2023), Duong Dieu Linh’s Don’t Cry, Butterfly (2024), and most recently Chie Hayakawa’s Cannes competition title Renoir (2025) and Woo Ming Jin’s The Fox King, which is premiering in Toronto.
Han made her debut in 2005 with Nonstop 5 and later gained notice in award-winning MBC drama Dong Yi (2010). Her film work also includes Masquerade (2012), Cold Eyes (2013), Beauty Inside (2015), Love, Lies (2016) and The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure (2020), while she has also starred in series including Amazon Prime Video’s Treadstone (2019), Disney+ series Moving (2023) and Japanese Netflix original Romantic Anonymous (2025).
