The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and its affiliated audiovisual content market TIFFCOM have unveiled dates for their 2026 editions.
The 39th TIFF will run for 10 days from Oct. 26 through Nov. 4, with the accompanying TIFFCOM market operating for three days from Oct. 28-30.
Both events will return to their established Tokyo locations. TIFF’s main venues will remain in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area, while TIFFCOM will again be housed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho-Kan.
A call for entries is scheduled to open on April 7, with further details to be posted on TIFF’s official website.
The 2026 edition follows a strong 38th installment, which ran Oct. 27–Nov. 5, 2025. That edition drew a galaxy of stars to the opening night red carpet at the Takarazuka Theater, including Juliette Binoche, Fan Bingbing, Paul Schrader and Japanese screen legend Yoshinaga Sayuri, who received the TIFF Lifetime Achievement Award. The festival also saw the debut of the Asian Students’ Film Conference, a new showcase for emerging talent from film schools across the region, while TIFFCOM expanded its Tokyo Gap-Financing Market and rebranded its story market as Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake, reflecting growing international demand for Japanese intellectual property.
TIFF is hosted by Unijapan. TIFFCOM is organized jointly by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), and Unijapan.
Japan is the Country of Honor at this year’s Cannes Film Market. The country experienced a box office boom in 2025 with “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1” anchoring a banner year for Japan’s theatrical market, helping push total box office receipts to a record JPY274.45 billion ($1.79 billion), up 32% from 2024’s approximately JPY206 billion ($1.34 billion).
The keenly anticipated Toho film, “Godzilla Minus Zero,” is scheduled to release in Japan on Nov. 3, the penultimate day of the festival, continuing the tradition of releasing on Godzilla Day.
Leave a Reply