Iranian director Majid Majidi's film Midday Meal won the top prize at the 31st Busan International Film Festival in South Korea on Thursday.
The film won the Busan Award for best film at the closing ceremony at the Busan Cinema Center, according to Screen Daily. It beat 12 other titles in a competition of 13 films, The Korea Herald reported.
A jury led by Chinese director Zhang Yimou chose the winner, The Hollywood Reporter reported. The other members were Bi Gan, Moon Choi, Kei Ishikawa, July Jung, Tran Thi Bich Ngoc and Samal Yeslyamova.
The Korea Times reported that the seven-member jury chose the film unanimously. That detail was not reported by the other outlets reviewed.
The award comes with 50 million won, about $37,000, according to Screen Daily and The Korea Times. The win also qualifies the film for submission in the Academy Awards' best international feature category, according to Variety and other outlets.
Screen Daily said Busan is the only Asia-based festival to offer that route to the Oscars. The Korea Times said it applies from this year.
The film follows a contract teacher in a remote Iranian village who turns to smuggling to keep his school open, according to Screen Daily. The Hollywood Reporter named the teacher as Davoud Soulan, played by Mohammad Rahimi, and placed the village in southeastern Iran.
The Hollywood Reporter said his pupils lose free lunches when a wealthy benefactor dies. Variety described the free lunch as threatened by government cuts. Its Persian title is Ghazaye nimroz, according to The Film Verdict.
Other prizes went to Lee Yun Chan of Taiwan, who won best director for To Be Ordinary, and Eddie Cahyono of Indonesia, who won the Special Jury Prize for Ibuku (My Mother). Zhou Xun and Kashun Himeno took the acting awards.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Majidi dedicated the award to the "brave people of Iran", Screen Daily reported. He said they were still resisting oppression and never gave up.
In comments reported by the Kyunghyang Shinmun English edition, Mr Majidi said he hoped "a world without war will come". He also said he had lost his mother a few months before filming, and The Korea Herald reported his tribute to her.
Before a screening on 9 October, Mr Majidi dedicated the film to the people of Iran and to the children of Minab, according to the Tehran Times. He said 168 children had died on the first day of the war.
The figure and the account of events come only from Mr Majidi. No independent confirmation of the number had been found, and no response from Iranian officials or other parties had been reported.
It was Mr Majidi's first visit to Busan and to South Korea, according to Screen Daily and The Korea Herald. The festival ran from 6 to 15 October.
Screen Daily reported that it drew its biggest audience since 2015, while The Korea Times put attendance at 200,043.
Mr Majidi is a veteran Iranian director whose films have played at Cannes, Berlin and Venice over 35 years. His Children of Heaven, released in 1997, was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 1999.
His Sun Children made the Oscar shortlist in 2021. Screen Daily described him as Iran's most submitted filmmaker in the Oscars' international category.
The Busan International Film Festival is Asia's largest film festival, according to the Express Tribune. It launched its first full competition section only last year.
The film can now be submitted for the best international feature Oscar. The reports reviewed did not say who selects Iran's official entry or whether this film will be chosen, and it was not clear whether Iranian authorities had commented on the win.
