Alfonso Cuarón to make first Korea visit for Busan festival
Alfonso Cuarón will visit South Korea for the first time to attend the Busan International Film Festival, organisers have announced.
The Mexican director is expected at the festival's opening ceremony and will give a master class on the artistic choices and filmmaking techniques behind his career, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Busan will also stage a special IMAX screening of his space drama Gravity.
It is his first visit. It puts one of world cinema's most decorated directors in front of a Korean audience.
Cuarón won the Academy Award for best director in 2014 for Gravity and won the prize again in 2019 for Roma, the same report said. The two wins made him one of the few directors to take the Oscar twice in five years.
The visit is a family affair. His son Jonás Cuarón will bring his new feature Campeón Gabacho for its Asian premiere in Busan's World Cinema section, a strand for new international films outside competition. The screening will be followed by a post-screening Q&A.
Jonás Cuarón co-wrote Gravity with his father and later directed the thriller Desierto and the Netflix fantasy adventure Chupa. Campeón Gabacho stars Juan Daniel García Treviño, Leslie Grace, Rubén Blades, Eddie Marsan, Rosario Dawson and Cheech Marin, and is described as a portrait of a Mexican immigrant struggling to build a life in the United States.
Jonás and Alfonso Cuarón produce the film alongside Gabriela Rodriguez through their company Esperanto Filmoj, with Nicolás Celis also credited as a producer. The film is based on Aura Xilonen's 2015 novel, according to Deadline, and centres on Liborio, a young migrant whose talent is taking punches, as listed by SXSW where it screened in Austin in March 2026.
The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15 at the Busan Cinema Center and venues across Busan. Busan is South Korea's largest film festival and a key launch point for Asian cinema in the autumn festival calendar.
What makes this stand out for fans is access. A master class and a Q&A mean audiences hear how the choices were made, not just see the finished films.
