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In a year in which two of world cinema’s oldest cinema industries, Japan and Italy, have signed a long-awaited co-production treaty, jury members at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) were talking up the importance of both film history and the theatrical experience on the first full day of the festival.
After praising TIFF for its selection of established and emerging Asian filmmakers, Hong Kong actor and jury president Tony Leung Chiu-wai also pointed to the festival’s in-depth programmes of classic movies observing that they play an important role in “introducing Italian directors like Fellini and Japanese filmmakers like [Akira] Kurosawa to younger audiences.
“They are not only introducing what is current, but also the vast history of cinema, which is a wonderful opportunity for audiences to learn about the past,” the star of In The Mood For Love and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings said.
After several years of negotiations, Japan and Italy have finally signed a co-production treaty, which will be explored in a panel at the TIFFCOM contents market, while eight classic Italian films will screen at the festival, including Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, both starring Marcello Mastroianni, and three titles from Nanni Moretti. In addition, five Italian projects have been selected for TIFFCOM’s Tokyo Gap Financing Market.
Italian actress Chiara Mastroianni, Mastroianni’s daughter who stars in TIFF’s closing film Marcello Mio, a meta-narrative on her relationship with her father, observed that film festivals are helping to keep alive the experience of watching movies in a cinema, as audience habits changed with the pandemic and the rise of streaming.
“I do admire people who still fight to defend film festivals because they’re an occasion to not only discover wonderful filmmakers, but also to watch a movie in a theatre with people around you – which is a wonderful experience,” Mastroianni said.
Hong Kong director Johnnie To, a frequent visitor to Japan, also talked about the country’s cinematic legacy: “Japan has a long history in cinema, and I watched these films from a young age and was very impressed,” said the director of award-winning crime dramas such as Election and Vengeance.
“Lately, audiences tend to not have an interest in older movies. Film festivals are an opportunity to introduce these past works to younger audiences so they can understand what has happened in the past.”
Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi Ildikó (On Body And Soul) talked about the role that festivals play in the discovery of emerging filmmakers: “It’s so much easier to just pick the big names, but there is much more refined work in finding those gems that, thanks to this festival, will have a better chance of travelling.”
Japanese actress Ai Hashimoto said that she looked at the diversity of films from the rest of Asia in the festival’s line-up as a useful tool for local Japanese filmmakers: “I have a sense that there’s always room for improvement, we can always think about how we can be better, and looking at films from Hong Kong, China, Korea and other regions – when we look at where we are in Japan, there are many things we can learn from them.”
TIFF’s main jury is watching 15 titles in the festival’s International Competition, including several world premieres such as The Englishman’s Papers, from Portugal’s Sérgio Graciano; Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Yung’s Papa, and Chinese actor-turned-director Dong Zijian’s My Friend An Delie.
The festival opened on October 28 with the screening of Shiraishi Kazuya’s 11 Rebels. During the opening ceremony, Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba pledged support for the local content industry, which he observed is on the same export scale as the steel and semiconductor indutries.
“The government is working to lay the groundwork to further encourage the development of the Japanese content industry by supporting the growth of the next generation of creators and optimising business transactions,” Ishiba told festival attendees in a video message.
