Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ‘The Beasts’ Takes Grand Prix, Best Director, Actor Awards
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s multi-layered thriller The Beasts nearly achieved a clean sweep of the Tokyo International Film Festival’s major awards categories Wednesday night in the Japanese capital. During a ceremony held in the city’s glitzy Ginza district, The Beasts came away with the Tokyo Grand Prix, the festival’s top honor, as well as best director honors […]
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Alejandro González Iñárritu on ‘Bardo’: “The Most Challenging Filmmaking I Have Ever Done”
Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu is no stranger to the Tokyo International Film Festival. He first visited the city with his debut feature film, Amores Perros (2000), and went on to win the festival’s prizes for both best director and best film. In 2006, he was back in the Japanese capital to shoot major […]
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Tokyo: Milcho Manchevski On His Competition Film, Artistic Compromise and an Iconic Hip-Hop Video
New-York based director, writer, photographer and artist Milcho Manchevski burst into filmmaking in 1994 with his acclaimed debut Before the Rain, which was nominated for a foreign language and Oscar and won a Golden Lion at Venice. Prior to that, his iconic 1991 music video for hip-hop unit Arrested Development’s Tennessee had pointed to a […]
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Tokyo: How Softcore Erotica Sustained Japan’s Film Industry and Nurtured Some Leading Directors
Safe to say there isn’t another country bar Japan where a handful of top directors, including celebrated auteurs and an Oscar winner, learned their craft in adult films. Or perhaps even anywhere else in the world where that is imaginable. But when cinemagoing plunged in parallel with the penetration of television sets into homes in […]
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Tokyo: Producer Genki Kawamura Talks Directorial Debut, ‘Your Name’ Hollywood Remake
Producer, scriptwriter, best-selling author and now award-winning director Genki Kawamura is best known for his work on Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 anime megahit Your Name. Beginning his career at Toho, his talented was spotted early and he was trusted with producer duties on major projects at Japan’s biggest studio. In 2010, he worked on the Confessions, […]
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Tokyo: Programmer Shozo Ichiyama on Making Festival Bridge Between Japanese and Global Film Worlds
In his second year as programming director, industry veteran Shozo Ichiyama believes he has taken another step closer to realizing his vision for the Tokyo International Film Festival. A producer known for working with China’s Jia Zhangke, Japan’s Takeshi Kitano and Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ichiyama is striving to make TIFF a gateway between the Japanese […]
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Tokyo: Director Takahisa Zeze Talks Historical Importance of Fest Opening Movie, Freedom of Low-Budget Filmmaking
Opening this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival is Takahisa Zeze’s war drama Fragments of the Last Will, a tragic but hopeful story from a little-known chapter of Russo-Japanese history. Based on the true story of Hatao Yamamoto (Kazunari Ninomiya), one of more than half a million Japanese soldiers taken to the Soviet Union after World […]
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‘Tokyo Vice’ Producer Alan Poul Talks Season 2, Why Japan’s Capital Is the “Most Difficult” City to Shoot
American director and producer Alan Poul is best known to the industry for his work on prestige HBO series like Six Feet Under, The Newsroom and Big Love, but his career began, improbably, on a soundstage on the west side of Tokyo, Japan. After graduating with a degree in Japanese language and literature from Yale […]
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‘Kaymak’ Review: Milcho Manchevski’s Sex-Charged Couples Dramedy Doesn’t Exactly Titillate
The latest film from the Macedonian director of the Oscar-nominated 'Before the Rain' made its world premiere in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
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‘Mountain Woman’ Review: A Japanese Girl Tries to Avoid Starving to Death in Somber Period Drama
Writer-director Takeshi Fukunaga ('Out of My Hand') premiered his latest feature, set in 18th-century Japan, at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
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Tokyo: Sally Amaki, Jon Kabira to Host 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Japan (Exclusive)
Anime specialty service Crunchyroll has selected the star hosts for its first-ever live awards show, which will be held early next year in Japan. Renowned voice actress Sally Amaki and veteran entertainer Jon Kabira will co-host the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the company said Tuesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival. “We share a deep […]
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Tokyo Film Fest Kicks Off With Return of Overseas Guests, Celebration of Local Talent and Ultraman
In a welcome return to normalcy, the Tokyo International Film Festival rolled out the full red carpet, all 541 feet of it, for the first time since 2019, once again welcoming guests from around the globe to a new venue for its opening ceremony on a brisk autumn evening in the Japanese capital. The COVID-19 […]
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