Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is to honour Chinese filmmaker Gu Xiaogang and Indonesian director Mouly Surya with the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 36th edition, which runs October 23 to November 1.
The award, which was revived last year after an absence of 14 years, is presented to filmmakers who have “made waves in cinema” and are expected to help guide the industry’s future. A ceremony to present the awards will be held at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel on October 31.
Director Gu broke through with internationally acclaimed debut Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains, which premiered as the closing film of Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2019 and won the special jury prize at Tokyo Filmex in 2019.
Surya debuted with Fiction in 2008, followed by What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love in 2013, which was the first Indonesian film to be selected for the Sundance Film Festival. In 2017, third feature Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts premiered at Cannes, going on to win the grand prize at Tokyo Filmex and was selected as Indonesia’s Oscar entry.
This year’s Kurosawa Akira Award selection committee comprised director Yoji Yamada, actress Fumi Dan, producer and casting director Yoko Narahashi, critic Saburo Kawamoto and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
In a joint statement, they said of Surya’s selection: “Her international acclaim has given hope to many Southeast Asian female filmmakers who are just beginning their careers. We present her with this award in the hope that she will continue to make a significant contribution to cinema culture.”
Previous recipients of the award include Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Last year, acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada received the award.
In conjunction with the award, TIFF will also screen classics that Kurosawa was known to admire including Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights, Jean Renoir The Lower Depths, John Ford’s The Quiet Man and Francois Truffaut’s The Quiet Man. The festival will also screen Kurosawa’s 1957 classic Throne Of Blood.
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