Busan Film Festival to Honor Its Founder Kim Dong-ho With Korean Cinema Award
The Busan International Film Festival has named its founding director, Kim Dong-ho, as the recipient of this year's Korean Cinema Award, the festival announced on August 14, 2026. The prize will be presented at the opening ceremony of the 31st edition on October 6 (Variety).
Kim became BIFF's founding festival director in 1996 and guided the event through its launch. He served the festival he helped establish for more than 15 years, according to his own account. The award — known in Korean as Hanguk Yeonghwa Gongrosang, or Korean Film Merit Award — recognises contributions to Korean cinema (Chosun).
The 31st BIFF runs October 6–15 at the Busan Cinema Center and other venues around the city. The 21st Asian Contents & Film Market — the industry trade component that runs alongside the festival where sales agents and buyers do business — takes place October 10–13 (Variety).
Kim's career in cinema extends well beyond Busan. He served as vice minister of South Korea's Ministry of Culture from 1992 to 1993, and has sat on juries at Cannes' Un Certain Regard strand, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Fukuoka film festival (Variety).
In recent years he has stepped behind the camera himself. His documentary Walking in the Movies (2024), about his life in cinema, was selected for Cannes Classics. His feature directorial debut, Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema (2025), made in collaboration with Lee Chang-dong, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and Kore-eda Hirokazu, screened at the 30th BIFF last year (Variety).
The award announcement was confirmed independently by The Hollywood Reporter (THR) and by BIFF's own press release on the festival website.
For context, the Korean Cinema Award is the festival's own honour, given at BIFF's discretion rather than by an outside jury. It sits within a broader festival ecosystem that also includes the Asian Cinema Fund, which this year announced three co-production support recipients, and a Producer Hub focused on expanding co-production ties with Japan (BIFF).
What makes the moment notable is the symmetry: the man who built the festival is being honoured by it, three decades after he first set it running.
