Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Source: Courtesy of FIDMarseille

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) has revealed the 20 projects selected for financing and development at TIFFCOM, the content market of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

The 5th edition of TGFM is set to take place from October 30 to November 1 and includes five more projects than last year due to a special focus on Italy. This follows the signing of a co-production agreement between Italy and Japan in 2023, which came into effect last month.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Several international projects hail from successful producers who have teamed with young directors.

They include family drama 9 Temples To Heaven, the second feature of Thailand’s Sompot Chidgasornpongse, produced by Cannes Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul; and punk commune drama Ria by Filipino filmmaker Arvin Belarmino, co-produced by Alemberg Ang of Chie Hayakawa’s award-winning Cannes title Plan 75.

Patrick Mao, producer of Cannes’ Critics’ Week grand prize winner Tiger Stripes, has teamed with new Mongolian director Juefang Zhang’s Where the Mountain Women Sing, which has also been selected for Busan’s Asian Project Market, while UK-based Australian filmmaker Jemima James will present Cold Enough For Snow, based on the Tokyo-set bestselling novel of the same name, produced by Eve Gabereau of Modern Films.

From Japan, the selection includes Japan-Taiwan-US co-production Before Anyone Else by Tetsuya Mariko, who won best new director at Locarno in 2016 with Destruction Babies; The Moon Is Watching, an adaptation of the novel by Junichi Watanabe helmed by his daughter, first-time director Naoko Watanabe; and Strangers In Tokyo by Masanori Tominaga, whose most recent film was 2023’s Between The White Key And The Black Key.

Further projects include Container from Canada-based Vietnamese filmmaker Quan Luong, which follows his short of the same name about a group of Vietnamese nationals making their way to an unknown location in a shipping container to find a better life.

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, whose Invisible Waves played in Competition at the Berlinale in 2006 and Nymph screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2009, will bring Morte Cucina. The culinary thriller is set to star Japan’s Tadanobu Asano, who was recently Emmy nominated for his role in hit series Shogun and previously worked with the director on Last Life in the Universe, for which he won best actor at Venice in 2003.

Contemporary article Vajiko Chachkhiani is TGFM’s first participant from Georgia and will present The Dog Is Barking, scripted by Sakichi Sato of Takashi Miike’s cult classic Ichi the Killer; and Jun Li’s noir project Number 4 Killer is from major Hong Kong production company mm2 Studios.

The five projects from Italy were selected with input from the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà. They include Italy-Japan co-production Children Of The River by Japanese director Lisa Takeba, who co-directed Busan 2019 opening film The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time. The upcoming feature is produced by Antropica.

Further live-action Italian productions include Death Has No Master by Jorge Thielen Armand and Pompei by Giuseppe Gaudino. Two animated features, both co-productions with France, are Aida And The Breath Of The Mountain by Lorenzo Latrofa and The State Of Souls by Peter Marcias.

To qualify, projects must have 60% of their total budget secured and an Asia-related element.

One-to-one meetings with potential investors including producers, sales agents, distributors and financiers will take place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Centre Hamamatsucho-Kan. TGFM is hosted by Unijapan, the industry body that organises TIFFCOM.

Films to participate in previous markets include Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well, which won the best feature Teddy award at this year’s Berlinale and Tetsuya Tomina’s Who Were We?, which played in competition at last year’s TIFF. A further previous project is Kazuya Shiraishi’s 11 Rebels, which is set to world premiere as the opening film of the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival.

Tokyo Gap-Financing Market 2024

Feature Film – Fiction

9 Temples To Heaven (Thai-Sing-Fr)
Dir. Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Prodco. Kick the Machine Films

Before Anyone Else (Japan-Tai-US)
Dir. Tetsuya Mariko
Prodco. ROJI Film

Cold Enough For Snow (UK-Japan-Australia)
Dir. Jemima James
Prodco. Modern Films

Container (Viet-Can)
Dir. Quan Luong
Prodco. Farpoint Films (Container Film)

The Dog Is Barking (Geo-Japan-Ger)
Dir. Vajiko Chachkhiani
Prodcos. Nushi Film, Fuga Films

The Moon Is Watching (Japan)
Dir. Naoko Watanabe
Prodco. Dragonfly Entertainment

Morte Cucina (Thai-Lux-Sing-Tai-US)
Dir. Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Prodco. 185 Films Company Limited (Thailand)

Number 4 Killer (HK)
Dir. Jun Li
Prodco. mm2 Studios Hong Kong

Ria (Phil-Japan-Sing)
Dir. Arvin Belarmino
Prodco. WAF Studios

Strangers In Kyoto (Japan)
Dir. Masanori Tominaga
Prodco. Tokyo Theatres Co.

Where The Mountain Women Sing (Mong-Ger-Tai-Den)
Dir. Juefang Zhang
Prodcos. Flash Forward Entertainment, When Pigs Fly Films

Feature Film – Animation

Batik Girl (Malay)
Dir. Irwan Junaidy
Prodco. The R&D Studio

The Drifting Room (China-Sing)
Dir. Zhang Kang
Prodco. Ahaverse PTE

Nightling (Nor)
Dir. Rasmus A. Sivertsen
Prodco. Qvisten Animation AS

Wildheart (Fr-Bel)
Dir. Marceau Nakayama
Prodco. Keytales

Italian Projects

Children Of The River (Japan-It)
Dir. Lisa Takeba
Prodco. Antropica

Death Has No Master (Ven-It-Can-Lux)
Dir. Jorge Thielen Armand
Prodco. Volos Films Italia

Pompei (It)
Dir. Giuseppe Gaudino,
Prodco. Minerva Pictures

Aida And The Breath Of The Mountain (It-Fr) animation
Dir. Lorenzo Latrofa
Prodco. La Sarraz Pictures

The State Of Souls (It-Fr) animation
Dir. Peter Marcias
Prodco. Movimento Film

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