Asian Film Award for Best Director
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Teki Cometh (2025)
| Asian Film Award for Best Director | |
|---|---|
 The 2025 recipient: Daihachi Yoshida | |
| Awarded for | Excellence in Directing in Asian Cinema |
| Presented by | Asian Film Awards Academy |
| First award | 2007 |
| Most recent winner | Daihachi Yoshida Teki Cometh (2025) |
| Website | afa-academy |
The Asian Film Award for Best Director is presented annually by the Asian Film Awards Academy (AFAA), a non-profit organization founded by Busan International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival with the shared goal of celebrating excellence in Asian cinema.
It was first presented in 2007 during the first edition of the awards. Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke was the first recipient of the award for his work in the drama Still Life. The most recent winner is Japanese director Daihachi Yoshida for the film Teki Cometh.
Japanese film director Hirokazu Kore-eda and South Korean director Lee Chang-dong both hold the record of most wins in the category with three; Kore-eda for Still Walking (2009), Broker (2023) and Monster (2024); Lee for Secret Sunshine (2008), Poetry (2011) and Burning (2019). They are also the only directors with multiple wins in the category. Hirokazu Koreeda is also the director with the most nominations for the award with six.
Winners and nominees
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2000s
| Year | Recipient(s) | English title | Original title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 |  Jia Zhangke | Still Life | 三峡好人 | [1] [2] |
 Hong Sang-soo | Woman on the Beach | 해변의 여인 | ||
 Jafar Panahi | Offside | آفساید | ||
 Johnnie To | Exiled | 放逐 | ||
 Tsai Ming-liang | I Don't Want to Sleep Alone | 黑眼圈 | ||
 Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Syndromes and a Century | อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล | ||
| 2008 | Lee Chang-dong | Secret Sunshine | 밀양 | [3] [4] |
| Peter Chan | The Warlords | 投名状 | ||
| Jiang Wen | The Sun Also Rises | 太阳照常升起 | ||
| Ang Lee | Lust, Caution | 投名状 | ||
 Masayuki Suo | I Just Didn't Do It | それでもボクはやってない | ||
| Zhang Lu | Desert Dream | 경계 | ||
| 2009 | Hirokazu Kore-eda | Still Walking | 歩いても 歩いても | [5] [6] |
| Feng Xiaogang | If You Are the One | 非诚勿扰 | ||
| Kim Jee-woon | The Good, the Bad, the Weird | 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 | ||
 Brillante Mendoza | Service | Serbis | ||
| Hayao Miyazaki | Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea | 崖の上のポニョ | ||
| John Woo | Red Cliff | 赤壁 |
