a day ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Claudia Kim to host BIFF closing ceremony
Marvel actress joins Lee Byung-hun as festival bookends for milestone edition
The Busan International Film Festival has tapped actor Claudia Kim as solo host for its closing ceremony on Sept. 26, organizers announced Monday.
Kim will present the inaugural Busan Awards to winners of the festival's new competitive section — marking BIFF's historic shift to competitive status after 29 years as a non-competitive event.
Kim bookends the festival's 30th edition, whose opening ceremony will be hosted by actor Lee Byung-hun. The festival runs Sept. 17-26 at the Busan Cinema Center and venues across the city. The event will screen approximately 240 films, up from 224 last year.
Known as Soo-hyun in Korea, Kim broke ground as the first Korean actor in a Marvel film with "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015). She's since built a dual-track career spanning Hollywood blockbusters — including "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (2018) and "The Dark Tower" (2017) — and Korean productions such as Netflix's "Gyeongseong Creature" (2023-2024) and "The Atypical Family" (2024).
Her performance in the Disney+ film "A Normal Family" earned her best supporting actress at the 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards. The actor, 40, spent six years of her childhood in the United States and studied international relations at Ewha Womans University before pivoting to entertainment after winning a modeling competition in 2005.
Festival organizers praised Kim's "elegant presence and depth on screen" as well as her command of English, noting her ability to bridge Korean and global cinema.
Following Park Eun-bin's solo hosting debut in 2023, Kim will become the second woman to helm a ceremony alone at the festival.
