The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which includes world premieres of features from China, Japan and Hong Kong among its competition strands.
The festival, which is set to run from October 28 to November 6, will include 120 films and three series across the 10 main sections. The selection was made from 2,023 entries, up from 1,942 last year.
Scroll down for full competition lists
The majority of the 15-strong Competition strand hails from Asia with three films from Japan and three from China as well as titles from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Kazakhstan.
The films from Japan are She Taught Me Serendipity from Akiko Ohku, whose Tremble All You Want won the audience award at TIFF in 2017; Teki Cometh from Daihachi Yoshida, whose Pale Moon won the same award in 2014; and Lust In The Rain, a Japan-Taiwan co-production from Katayama Shinzo, whose Siblings Of The Cape won the top prize at the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in 2018.
From China are world premieres of Big World by Yang Lina and My Friend An Delie by actor-turned-director Dong Zijian as well as The Unseen Sister by Midi Z, which is set for release in China on October 26.
Further world premieres in Competition include Philip Yung’s Papa from Hong Kong, Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s Cadet from Kazakhstan and Sergio Graciano’s The Englishman’s Papers from Portugal.
At a press conference in Tokyo today, programming director Shozo Ichiyama said the lineup reflects his continuing priority of “not thinking about achieving a balance between countries and regions, but simply selecting the most interesting films”.
Ichiyama added that he prefers films with “new discoveries and things we haven’t seen before” over those with high production value, as well as films that somehow represent or respond to anxieties about the present.
The Asian Future competition, for rising Asian filmmakers who have directed up to three features, comprises 10 films, all of which are world premieres.
Titles include Apollon By Day Athena By Night, the feature debut of Turkish screenwriter and producer Emine Yildirim; Pavane For An Infant by Chong Keat Aun, the Malaysian director known for historical riot drama Snow In Midsummer; along with The Bora by Mohammad Esmaeilie and Wait Until Spring by cinematographer Ashkan Ashkani, both from Iran.
Gala and World Focus
As previously announced, Kazuya Shiraishi’s 11 Rebels is set to world premiere as the opening film of TIFF while Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio will receive its Japan premiere as the closing feature.
Both are part of TIFF’s 15-film Gala section, which will include world premieres for Orang Ikan, a Singapore-Indonesia-Japan-UK co-production from Mike Wiluan, who co-produced Dev Patel’s Monkey Man; Snowflowers: Seeds of Hope, the latest from Takashi Koizumi (The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai); and Sunset Sunrise from Yoshiyuki Kishi, whose (Ab)normal Desire played in Competition at last year’s TIFF.
The World Focus section includes tributes to Mexican auteur Arturo Ripstein, Italian director Nanni Moretti and Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, the subject of closing film Marcello Mio, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. The section will also feature a screening of Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door, which won the Golden Lion at Venice earlier this month.
Focus and animation
The festival’s Nippon Cinema Now section, which focuses on new Japanese films, features five world premieres, including Underground by documentary filmmaker Oda Kaori, winner of the Pia Film Festival’s Oshima Prize in 2020, and Or Utopia by Kim Yunsoo, who won the festival’s Amazon Prime Video Take One Award in 2021.
This year’s director in focus is Yu Irie, who debuted with 8000 Miles in 2009, winning the grand prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. Five of the director’s films, including this year’s A Girl Named Ann, will be screened.
Irie appeared at today’s press conference in a suit, joking that things have changed since he and the cast of 8000 Miles appeared at TIFF 14 years ago in tracksuits like the rapper protagonists of his film.
The animation section, which was retooled last year to feature animation from around the world, will feature the world premiere of independent artist Gensho Yasuda’s Make A Girl as well as the Japanese premieres of films such as The Wild Robot and Memoir Of A Snail, winner of the Cristal prize for best film at Annecy in June.
A Women’s Empowerment section, which launches this year and is co-hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Govenment, includes seven films by women directors, including Japan-France co-production Adabana, directed by Kai Sakaya, whose Red Snow won best picture at the Los Angeles Japan Film Festival in 2019 and German feature Ivo, by Eva Trobisch, which won the Heiner Carow Prize at this year’s Berlinale.
The section is programmed by Andrijana Cvetkovik, who was Macedonia’s first ambassador to Japan and is TIFF’s first non-Japanese programmer. Cvetkovik is also the new executive producer of TIFFCOM, the festival’s affiliated content market that runs from October 30 to November 1.
Cvetkovik noted that in 2021 TIFF became the first Asian film festival to sign on to Collectif 5050, which aims for equality, parity and inclusion in the film industry. “With this new section, we take this commitment even further,” said Cvetkovik, who added that the films in the section were selected for their “narrative power, diversity of perspectives and distinct directorial vision.”
Priorities
At today’s press conference, festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando outlined the festival’s three major principles for this year’s edition: international exchange, nurturing future talent, and supporting female perspectives.
Though Ando emphasised that as an Asian festival TIFF continues to focus on strengthening ties with other Asian regions, this year will also feature a focus on Italy due to the recently enacted Japan-Italy film co-production agreement. That focus includes screenings of films by Italian director Nanni Moretti starring Mastroianni, plus the choice of Marcello Mio as closing feature and the inclusion of Chiara Mastroianni in the competition jury.
The festival’s series of talks between international filmmakers, TIFF Lounge, will move to the Lexus cafe in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, bringing it “closer to the heart of the festival,” said Ando. Johnnie To and Eric Khoo will be among the filmmakers participating in the talks.
In terms of nurturing future talent, the festival will continue its TIFF Teens programme, in which middle school students learn filmmaking skills, as well as a masterclass for Asian exchange students taught by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In addition, a filmmaking seminar held by Béla Tarr this February in Fukushima will screen its completed short film and Tarr will return to Japan for a related talk at TIFF.
Supporting female perspectives comes in the form of the new Women’s Empowerment section, which, in addition to seven features by female directors, features special screenings of Doctor-X The Movie, the feature film version of a popular TV drama, and Women Make Films – The Tokyo International Women’s Film Festival, a documentary looking back on the titular festival which ran from 1985 to 2012. The festival will also co-host with brand Kering a talk event called Women in Motion featuring festival navigator Rinko Kikuchi.
Ando also described the overall character the festival is aiming to achieve and added that “rather than trying to catch up to major festivals like Cannes and Berlin,” TIFF wants to establish itself as a regional festival with bonds with other Asian countries. “We hope that if people come to TIFF they’ll be able to understand what’s happening around Asia and in Japan,” said the chairman.
TIFF 2024 Competition
* world premiere
Adios Amigo (Col)
Dir. Iván David Gaona
Big World (China)*
Dir. Yang Lina
Bury Your Dead (Bra)
Dir. Marco Dutra
Cadet (Kaz)*
Dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Daughter’s Daughter (Tai)
Dir. Huang Xi
The Englishman’s Papers (Port)*
Dir. Sergio Graciano
In His Own Image (Fr)
Dir. Thierry de Peretti
Lust in the Rain (Japan-Tai)*
Dir. Shinzo Katayama
My Friend An Delie (China)*
Dir. Dong Zijian
Papa (HK)*
Dir. Philip Yung
Promise, I’ll Be Fine (Slovakia-Czech)*
Dir. Katarína Gramatová
She Taught Me Serendipity (Japan)*
Dir. Ohku Akiko
Teki Cometh (Japan)*
Dir. Yoshida Daihachi
Traffic (Rom-Bel-Neth)
Dir. Teodora Ana Mihai
The Unseen Sister (China)
Dir. Midi Z
Asian Future
Apollon By Day Athena By Night (Turkey)
Dir. Emine Yildirim
Black Ox (Japan-Tai-US)
Dir. Tsuta Tetsuichiro
The Bora (Iran)
Dir. Mohammad Esmaeilie
Missing Child Videotape (Japan)
Dir. Kondo Ryota
Pavane For An Infant (Malay)
Dir. Chong Keat Aun
Sima’s Song (Sp-Neth-Fr-Tai-Greece-Afg)
Dir. Roya Sadat
Three Castrated Goats (US)
Dir. Ye Xingyu
Valley Of The Shadow Of Death (HK)
Dirs Jeffery Lam Sen, Antonio Tam
The Vessel’s Isle (US)
Dir. Wang Di
Wait Until Spring (Iran)
Dir. Ashkan Ashkani
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