Tokyo festival sets 15-film competition with Godzilla centrepiece
Tokyo has set its 15-film race for the top prize, with a music drama to open and zombies and Godzilla to follow.
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival has revealed its full competition lineup, The Hollywood Reporter reported on 1 Oct. The festival runs from 26 Oct to 4 Nov in the Japanese capital.
It will open with Sukiyaki, a music drama from Japanese director Zeze Takahisa. It will close with Colony, a zombie action horror film from South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho, which will have its Japanese premiere in that slot. The centrepiece screening, a high-profile showcase outside the awards race, will be Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus Zero.
The main competition features 15 films competing for the Tokyo Grand Prix / Governor of Tokyo Award, the festival's top prize. Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer will serve as president of the international competition jury, according to the festival.
Seven titles will arrive as world premieres, meaning Tokyo hosts their first public screenings. They include Garin Nugroho's Indonesian entry Red Before Dawn, Mishima Yukiko's Two Cigarettes, Three Nights and Yamamoto Akira's The Intertwining from Japan, Ikeda Akira's Taiwan-Japan co-production The Canary's Lullaby, Qiu Jiongjiong's Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting, made across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Wang Jiangyong's France-Hong Kong co-production The Night That Binds Us and Milcho Manchevski's North Macedonia-led ensemble film Sister Brother Manhole Cover, Variety reported.
Eight more will play as Asian premieres, their first screenings in Asia after debuting elsewhere. That group includes Lisandro Alonso's Chile-Argentina co-production Double Freedom, Teodora Ana Mihai's Belgian football-disaster drama Heysel 85, Rubaiyat Hossain's France-Bangladesh co-production The Difficult Bride and Bahman Ghobadi's Turkey-set Trees Are Watching. Japan leads the count with three competition entries, the most of any country. Four films are directed by women: Hossain, Mihai, Mishima and Jelena Maksimovic.
The Gala Selection, a 15-title section for high-profile films outside competition, mixes festival circuit titles and star vehicles. It includes Tony Gilroy's Behemoth!, Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Cristian Mungiu's Fjord and Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine. It also features Wayne Wang's Diary of a Mad Old Man, starring Fan Bingbing, Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beloved and a film starring Pedro Pascal.
Beyond the two main sections, the Asian Future competitive section will present 10 titles by emerging filmmakers. Nippon Cinema Now will spotlight nine Japanese films. The Classics section will show 4K digitally remastered versions of Naruse Mikio's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Scattered Clouds. A separate retrospective will show 13 films across 12 programmes to mark 70 years since the death of Kenji Mizoguchi, the director of Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff.
What makes this stand out is the balance. First screenings sit beside regional debuts. Local titles sit beside films from South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For fans, this means Tokyo remains a place to catch new Japanese work early and to see international titles before they reach wider release in Asia.
