A sparse drama set in an arid, near-apocalyptic village has taken the top honor at the Busan International Film Festival, a win that automatically places the film in the running for an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film.
"Midday Meal," directed by Majid Majidi, claimed the festival's grand prize on Thursday, capping a week in which the film had already drawn steady attention from critics and industry attendees. The victory secures an automatic submission slot for Oscar consideration, though the film's home country must still formally select it as its official entry.
The 129-minute drama, shot in Persian, had its festival screening just days after opening theatrically on October 9. It is currently rated 0 out of 10 on TMDb.
A Teacher's Dream Collides With Loss in a Barren Landscape
At its core, the film follows Solan, a schoolteacher who is the only educator in a blighted, drought-stricken village that Majidi renders as a place at the edge of the world. Solan has spent years in a temporary, poorly compensated teaching post, and his ambitions are deliberately small: he wants a permanent full-time position and a proper house where he can care for his mother.
Those plans begin to collapse when the benefactor who financed the school's meal program dies. The loss of that financial lifeline threatens not only the children's daily meals but the entire structure of the school - and, by extension, the modest future Solan has been clinging to. What follows, according to the film's logline, is a slow unraveling rather than a single dramatic rupture.
Mohammad Rahimi leads the cast as Solan. Kheyri Zakeri, Rahim Bakhsh Pira, and Heybatmorad Damani round out the principal ensemble.
A Veteran Director Returns to Familiar Ground
Majidi is no stranger to stories about impoverished children in rural settings or to the festival circuit in Asia. His win at Busan adds to a filmography that has long been associated with humanistic, visually stark storytelling, and "Midday Meal" appears to continue in that vein - a drama of economic precarity and quiet desperation rather than overt political statement.
The film's title points directly to the central plot mechanism: a daily meal program whose collapse triggers the protagonist's crisis. In a village where the school is the last functioning institution, the loss of a single donor carries outsize consequences, and the screenplay appears to track that chain reaction through Solan's personal and professional life.
Busan's top prize has historically served as a launchpad for films seeking broader distribution and awards attention. For "Midday Meal," the immediate benefit is the Oscar qualifying status, which gives it a foothold in a crowded international race. Whether the film can convert that momentum into a nomination will depend on how the submission and campaigning process unfolds in the coming months.
"Midday Meal" is classified as a drama with a 2026 release in the Hollywood industry pipeline. Its runtime of 129 minutes places it in standard feature territory, and its theatrical rollout began roughly a week before the Busan announcement.
For now, the film's team can claim the festival's highest honor - and a place on the long road toward the Academy Awards.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
