International
Michelle Yeoh named Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year
Oscar winner to receive honour on 6 October as Busan celebrates four decades of cinema
MUMBAI: Some stars fade, others keep collecting standing ovations. Michelle Yeoh’s trophy cabinet has found room for yet another honour, with the veteran actor’s remarkable four-decade journey adding another glittering milestone.
Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh has been named the Asian Filmmaker of the Year by the 31st Busan International Film Festival, becoming the latest global cinema icon to receive one of Asia’s most prestigious film honours.
Yeoh will accept the award at the festival’s opening ceremony on 6 October at the Busan Cinema Center, where organisers will celebrate her enduring contribution to Asian and international cinema.
Presented annually since 2003, the accolade recognises filmmakers or organisations that have made exceptional contributions to Asian cinema. The Busan festival said Yeoh’s career, spanning more than 40 years, embodies that legacy through performances that have reshaped both Asian action cinema and Hollywood.
Yeoh first made her mark in Hong Kong’s martial arts cinema with films such as Yes, Madam! (1985), Police Story 3: Supercop and Wing Chun, challenging long-held conventions about female action heroes. She later crossed into global cinema with Tomorrow Never Dies and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, before reaching another career peak with Everything Everywhere All at Once, which made her the first Asian performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
The Busan honour adds to an already remarkable year for Yeoh. In February, she became the first Asian woman to receive the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, where filmmaker Sean Baker presented the award. Baker also premiered Sandiwara, an 11-minute short film starring Yeoh in five interconnected roles.
As part of the Busan celebrations, Yeoh has personally curated a three-film retrospective featuring Sandiwara, Everything Everywhere All at Once and the 2010 wuxia drama Reign of Assassins.
Festival audiences will also get to watch It’s My Time, Yeoh’s first Chinese-language feature since winning the Oscar. Directed by Bai Xue, the film stars Yeoh as a woman in her seventies who unexpectedly discovers a talent for competitive speedcubing.
Fresh from completing her role as Madame Morrible in Wicked: For Good, Yeoh is next set to appear in Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099, continuing a career that has effortlessly bridged Asian cinema, Hollywood blockbusters and streaming originals.
The 31st Busan International Film Festival will run from 6-15 October, with Kim Minha, star of Pachinko, hosting the opening ceremony where Yeoh will receive the honour. Recent recipients of the award include Jafar Panahi (2025), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (2024), Chow Yun-fat (2023) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai (2022), placing Yeoh among an illustrious line-up of Asian cinema legends.
