Busan Names Juries for Mecenat, Sonje, Netpac, Fipresci Awards — SkimNews
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- BIFF finalized jury members across four award categories — Mecenat, Sonje, Netpac, and Fipresci — ahead of the 31st festival running Oct. 6-15 at the Busan Cinema Center.
- The Mecenat Award jury — Rintu Thomas (co-director of "Writing With Fire"), Kim Taeil, and Zhou Hao ("The Chinese Mayor") — will judge a Korean or Asian documentary in Wide Angle Competition for a KRW10 million ($7,300) prize.
- The Sonje Award jury — Anuparna Roy, Abinash Bikram Shah, and Lee Ranhee — will evaluate Korean or Asian short films in Wide Angle Competition, also for KRW10 million ($7,300); Shah's "Elephants in the Fog" (2026) won the Jury Prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard.
- The Netpac Award jury — Nina Kochelyaeva, Matthew Poon, and Lee Dongha, CEO of Redpeter Films and producer of "Train to Busan" (2016) — will judge an outstanding film in the Vision section.
- The Fipresci Award jury — film critics and curators Ma Xingxu, Teresa Vena, and Roh Chul-hwan — will recognize artistic achievement in a Vision section film.
- Kim Taeil previously won the BIFF Mecenat Award itself for "Annyong, Sayonara" (2005), placing a past laureate on the jury of his former category.
- The 21st Asian Contents & Film Market will run Oct. 10-13 alongside the festival.
Why it matters: BIFF stacked its juries with internationally recognized documentary filmmakers (Thomas, Zhou), festival-circuit critics and curators (Ma, Vena, Kochelyaeva), and industry heavyweights like "Train to Busan" producer Lee Dongha — giving the modest KRW10 million ($7,300) prizes outsized career-launching weight for shorts and Asian cinema competing in the Vision and Wide Angle sections.
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