BIFF Is Now an A-List Film Festival: What Changed

The night of 15 October, Busan Cinema Center in Centum City. A jury led by Zhang Yimou called Iranian director Majid Majidi to the stage. With the prize came ₩50 million — and something BIFF could never have offered before: a door to the Oscars.

For thirty years Busan has been “Asia’s biggest film festival,” yet it always carried a caveat. It was not a festival with a main competition like Cannes or Venice; it was a showcase that gathered Asian cinema and screened it. In 2026 that caveat came off. This piece explains what “A-list” actually means, why it happened now, and what changes for film fans planning a trip to Busan next year. For the nuts and bolts — booking, venues, subtitles — see our Busan International Film Festival visitor guide.

What exactly is an "A-list" film festival?

It is an official tier that FIAPF, the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations, gives to the world’s most influential festivals. Founded in 1933, FIAPF represents 38 producers’ organisations in 31 countries and has long been the body that vouches for which festivals the industry can trust.

The term is confusing for a reason. The film world has said “A-list festival” for decades, but FIAPF had not officially used an ‘A’ tier for nearly twenty years. Instead it accredited festivals in four categories. In March 2026, in its biggest overhaul since 2007, FIAPF scrapped those categories, merged everything into a single list of accredited festivals and brought back the ‘A’ label for the most influential among them.

📋 How FIAPF accreditation changed (March 2026 overhaul)

The criteria tell you what FIAPF was looking for: how many films are submitted and what share come from abroad, how many industry professionals and journalists attend, how big the audience is and how full the seats are. In plain terms, it is a numbers test of “does the film industry actually treat this festival as important?” Genre and format do not matter, which is why an animation festival (Annecy), a shorts festival (Clermont-Ferrand) and a non-competitive one (Toronto) all made the A-list. Sundance, Telluride, BFI London and Edinburgh, on the other hand, are not on this accredited list.

Which 17 festivals are on the A-list?

🌍 FIAPF's 17 A-list film festivals (announced March 2026; months are typical dates)

Busan and FIAPF actually go back a long way. In 1997, a year after its first edition, BIFF became the first Korean festival accredited by FIAPF, and since 2018 it has sat on FIAPF’s Festivals Committee. Accreditation is old news; the “A” is new.

Why did it happen in 2026?

Because Busan launched its first main competition in 2025. For thirty years Busan’s awards centred on New Currents, a prize for new Asian directors. The big films were invited to be shown, not to compete.

Within a year of launching the competition, two things happened back to back:

1. 16 March: the FIAPF A-list. Festival director Jung Han-seok called it “a gratifying result that demonstrates the rapidly growing international capacity” of the festival.
2. May: the Academy changed its rules. From the 99th Academy Awards, alongside the one official submission per country, the top-prize winners of six designated festivals can also be considered for Best International Feature Film. Those six are Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto — and Busan.

How did Busan do in its first A-list year?

Going by the numbers, the word “renaissance” was not an exaggeration. Here is what the wrap-up reports on the 31st BIFF (6–15 October) said.

🎬 31st BIFF in numbers (closed 15 October 2026; reports citing festival figures)

Operational tweaks helped. This year the festival opened on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday to stretch the run into the weekend, and it raised daily screenings from four to five from Thursday through Sunday, when demand peaks. Festival director Jung Han-seok said most screenings sold out.

Who won

The competition is called the Busan Award. A seven-member jury chaired by Zhang Yimou chose the Best Film unanimously.

🏆 2026 Busan Award: main winners (Cine21 and Korea Times reports)

The opening ceremony brought out Michelle Yeoh, named Asian Filmmaker of the Year, along with Alfonso Cuarón, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Fan Bingbing and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Cuarón took audience questions after a screening of Gravity, and the Actors’ House talks featured Kim Go-eun, Ryu Seung-ryong, Shin Min-a and Ju Ji-hoon, among others. In the first five days alone, more than 50,000 people attended official programme events — outdoor stage greetings, master classes, open talks — already more than the whole of last year’s festival (Korea Times).

What changes for film fans?

The films and the people get better; getting a ticket gets harder.

📍 Open in Naver Map — Busan Cinema Center

Before Busan, warm up in Seoul

If it is your first time, it is worth getting a taste of Korean cinema in Seoul before or after the festival. The films Koreans actually packed cinemas for are in our all-time Korean box office ranking, and the places they were shot are in Seoul movie filming locations and K-drama filming locations in Seoul. Seoul Station to Busan is about two and a half hours by KTX.

One last thing. “A-list” sounds glamorous, but what makes BIFF special has not changed. For a ₩10,000 ticket you can watch a world premiere in the same room as its director, then put your hand up and ask them a question. Try doing that as an ordinary filmgoer at Cannes. The only difference now is how many people want that same ticket. So next year, move a little earlier.