The Tokyo International Film Festival will introduce two new competitive awards, a Southeast Asia-focused section and a prize honoring women in cinema.
The Nippon Cinema Now section will award a Best Film prize and a Special Jury Prize this year, with a jury combining Japanese and international industry figures. TIFF said the awards are meant to support Japanese filmmakers ranging from newcomers to veterans and connect their work with audiences abroad.
In a statement, TIFF festival director Hisamatsu Takeo said: “Through the establishment of a new competition within the Nippon Cinema Now section, we will shine a spotlight on exceptional new Japanese talent and introduce them to the world. We hope to give creators the courage to take on their next challenge while empowering them to advance to the global stage.”
TIFF is also launching Crosscut Asia+, a new section developed with the Japan Foundation that continues the mission of the earlier Crosscut Asia strand, which ran from 2014 to 2019. The section will pair film programmers from Japan and Southeast Asia each year around a shared theme, with curators from both sides selecting the lineup together.
The inaugural edition, themed Side by Side, was programmed by Raslene, who works as a film programmer and visual artist in Jakarta, and Ueda Masayuki, program director at the Tokyo repertory venue Waseda Shochiku, with Markus Nornes, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, serving as advisor. Six films make up the initial slate: Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiñana,” Kamila Andini’s “Four Seasons in Java,” Polen Ly’s “Becoming Human,” Bachtiar Siagian’s 1957 film “Turang,” Daniel Hui’s “Small Hours of the Night” and Hafiz Rancajale’s “Behind the Flickering Light: The Archive.” Screenings will be accompanied by panel discussions organized by the two programmers.
The festival’s third new initiative is the Kawakita Kashiko Award, established by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute to honor women advancing film culture in Japan and internationally. The award takes its name from Kawakita Kashiko, known as “Madame Kawakita,” who introduced European films to Japanese audiences before and after World War II and was among those instrumental in establishing the Japan Film Library Council, an effort that eventually led to the creation of Japan’s National Film Archive. A committee of women selects the recipient, and the award will be presented as part of TIFF’s Women’s Empowerment section.
Film critic Hata Sahoko is the award’s first recipient. Hata, who was born in Tokyo in 1931, moved to France as a journalist in 1957 before returning to Japan to join the distribution firm Shingaiei Haikyu Co., Ltd., then relocated to France as an acquisitions executive. She brought Jacques Tati’s “Mon Oncle” to Japan as her first major acquisition, followed by Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and René Clément’s “Purple Noon.” She has also authored several books and won the Japan Film Pen Club Award for her 2012 autobiographical novel “Kage no Bubun.”
Hata said she initially declined the honor, recalling the prewar and postwar eras when women were largely excluded from the industry even as Kawakita built a career shaping which films crossed borders.
“Her legacy remains a page in film history, as well as a chapter in the history of women,” Hata said. “On one occasion, Mme. Kawakita whispered to me: ‘As women, there are so many moments where we must endure, aren’t there?’ They were profound words indeed. It is precisely because I felt a compelling desire to pass this story on that I resolved to accept the award.”
The selection committee for the inaugural Kashiko Kawakita Award comprises Sakano Yuka, executive director of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute; Yamasaki Toshi, CEO and president of Toho-Towa Company, Limited; and Onda Yasuko, senior writer at the Yomiuri Shimbun.
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26–Nov. 4 and is hosted by Unijapan. The festival’s industry market, TIFFCOM, runs Oct. 28–30 and is organized by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and Unijapan.
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