Hiroyasu Ando

Source: Tokyo IFF

Hiroyasu Ando

Gender imbalance in the film industry and nurturing future talent will be under the spotlight at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF, Oct 27-Nov 5), according to festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando.

Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo to launch this year’s programme, Ando highlighted three elements that the festival will be working to address at the upcoming edition.

They include tackling gender issues, which will see the return of the Women’s Empowerment strand for a second year. The section will comprise seven films and three panels, which will discuss women filmmakers and women’s film festivals.

“Today, digital cinema and AI are reshaping our industry, creating new tools for underrepresented voices, yet the overall gender balance in the film industry has not shifted,” said Andrijana Cvetkovikj, who has programmed the section.

”Our hope is that the section does more than inspire. We want it to open doors, to build partnerships, and to create spaces where women can support and mentor one another. Above all, we want women’s voices to be heard, respected, and celebrated as an essential part of global cinema.”

“With conflicts occurring around the world, we want to contribute to harmony by deepening understanding through the medium of cinema,” said Ando in his opening statement.

TIFF will also aim to foster future creative talent by holding a short film competition featuring work from film schools across Japan and Asia. This new section, titled Asian Students’ Film Conference, replaces the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award as TIFF’s section focused on upcoming talent.

A third priority is to enhance the festival’s TIFF Lounge, launched in 2020 to host discussions between leading Asian filmmakers. This year will see veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada in conversation with Lee Sang-il, director of box office hit Kokuho and a recipient of this year’s honorary Kurosawa Akira Award. Yamada’s Tokyo Taxi will play as the Centrepiece feature of the festival and marks the 91st feature by the director.

Ando said that in addition to those discussions, the festival will increase opportunities for networking, holding parties of various sizes including the first official closing party in five years.

Overseas guests are expected to include US writer/director Paul Schrader, whose 1985 feature Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters will play in the Classics section. The film – a fictional portrait of acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Mishima Yukio – has never been released in Japan.

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