Tokyo Film Festival Unveils Competition Line-up; ‘My Favourite Cake’ To Screen In Women’s Empowerment Section

2 hours ago 1

ARTICLE AD

Tokyo International Film Festival has announced its full line-up including its main international and Asian Future competitions, as well as the nine films selected for its Women’s Empowerment Section.

The new female-focused section will screen Iranian drama My Favourite Cake, directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are banned from travelling by the Iranian authorities and were unable to attend the film’s premiere in Berlin.

Other titles in the Women’s Empowerment Section include Turkish director Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s In Ten Seconds; Hong Kong filmmaker Oliver Chan’s Montages Of A Motherhood; Memories Of A Burning Body, from Costa Rica’s Antonella Sudasassi Furniss; and the world premiere of Japanese director Naoki Tamura’s Doctor-X The Movie, among other titles.

Co-hosted with Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Women’s Empowerment Section is programmed by Andrijana Cvetkovikj and focuses on films directed by female filmmakers and/or with female-focused narratives. The new section is being introduced a few years after Tokyo became the first Asian film festival to sign with the Collectif 50/50 initiative to promote gender equality in the film industry in 2021.

Meanwhile, the 15 titles selected for the main International Competition include the world premieres of Big World from China’s Yang Lina, Papa from Hong Kong’s Philip Yung, and The Englishman’s Papers from Portugal’s Sergio Graciano, along with six other world premires (see full line-up below). Five other films will receive Asian premieres, while Midi Z’s The Unseen Sister will receive its international premiere.

The festival has already announced that Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai will head this year’s competition jury, which also includes Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, Italian actress Chiara Mastroianni, Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi Ildikó and Japanese actress Ai Hashimoto.

Titles selected for the Asian Future competition for emerging Asian directors with up to three feature films include Sima’s Song, from Afghan director Roya Sadat, Malaysian filmmaker Chong Keat Aun’s Pavane For An Infant, and Turkish director Emine Yildirim’s Apollon By Day Athena By Night (see full line-up below). All ten films in this section are world premieres.

Gala screenings include Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle; Guan Hu’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Black Dog; Marc Foster’s White Bird; and the world premiere of Indonesian filmmaker Mike Wiluan’s Orang Ikan, among other titles.

Tokyo has already announced that 11 Rebels, directed by Japan’s Kazuya Shiraishi, will receive its world premiere as the opening film this year, while Marcello Mio, directed by Christophe Honoré and starring jury member Mastroianni, will close the festival.

Nippon Cinema Now, which focuses on Japanese cinema, will screen 12 titles, including five directed by Yu Irie, who is this year’s Director in Focus. Other major sections include World Focus, Animation, Classics, Youth and TIFF Series.

Tokyo International Film Festival is scheduled for Octoober 28 to November 6, with the TIFFCOM contents market taking place October 30 to November 1.

MAIN COMPETITION:

Adios Amigo (Colombia) AP

Dir: Iván David Gaona

Big World (China) WP

Dir: Yang Lina

Bury Your Dead (Brazil) AP

Dir: Marco Dutra

Cadet (Kazakhstan) WP

Dir: Adilkhan Yerzhanov

Daughter’s Daughter (Taiwan) AP

Dir: Huang Xi

The Englishman’s Papers (Portugal) WP

Dir: Sérgio Graciano

In His Own Image (France) AP

Dir: Thierry de Peretti

Lust In The Rain (Japan, Taiwan) WP

Dir: Katayama Shinzo

My Friend An Delie (China) WP

Dir: Dong Zijian

Papa (Hong Kong) WP

Dir: Philip Yung

Promise, I’ll Be Fine (Slovakia, Czech) WP

Dir: Katarína Gramatová

She Taught Me Serendipity (Japan) WP

Dir: Ohku Akiko

Teki Cometh (Japan) WP

Dir: Yoshida Daihachi

Traffic (Romania, Belgium, Netherlands) AP

Dir: Teodora Ana Mihai

The Unseen Sister (China) IP

Dir: Midi Z