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.
