The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has named Indian filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Anuparna Roy to juries for its major awards, with the festival set to run from October 6 to 15 in Busan.
Thomas will serve on the jury for the BIFF Mecenat Award in the Feature Documentary Competition alongside South Korean director Kim Taeil and Chinese director Zhou Hao. The award recognises exceptional Korean and Asian documentaries in the Wide Angle Competition, with the winner receiving KRW 10 million.
Thomas is a documentary director and producer whose credits include Writing with Fire (2021), which received an Academy Award nomination, a Peabody Award and two Sundance Film Festival awards.
Roy will serve on the Sonje Award jury with Nepali filmmaker Abinash Bikram Shah and South Korean director and actor Lee Ranhee. The Sonje Award recognises exceptional Korean and Asian short films in the Wide Angle Competition, with each winner receiving KRW 10 million.
Roy's Songs of Forgotten Trees and Lovers in the Blue Night were both selected for the Orizzonti section of the Venice International Film Festival. Lovers in the Blue Night is listed by the Venice Biennale as an India-U.S. production directed and scripted by Roy.
Shah, who is from Nepal, won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2026 for Elephants in the Fog, according to BIFF. The film is also part of this year's BIFF programme.
The 31st BIFF will be held at the Busan Cinema Center and venues across Busan from October 6 to 15.
