The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today unveiled the full lineup and other highlights of its 37th edition in a press conference held at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, one of the festival’s main venues.
 
As previously announced, TIFF will open with the world premiere of 11 Rebels, an action-packed jidaigeki period piece directed by Shiraishi Kazuya, and close with the French-Italian comedy Marcello Mio, a Cannes standout directed by Christophe Honoré. The 10-day festival will feature screenings and extensive related events in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area of Tokyo from October 28 to November 6, 2024.
 
Festival Chairman Ando Hiroyasu delivered opening remarks at the conference, highlighting three major focuses of this year’s TIFF: enhancing the festival’s international exchange initiatives, nurturing talents for the industry’s future, and implementing programs to support female empowerment.
 
TIFFCOM Managing Director Ikeda Kaori then discussed TIFFCOM 2024, TIFF’s affiliated marketplace, which will be hosting its 21st edition from October 30 to November 1 at the Hamamatsuchokan Building, a short ride from TIFF’s main venues. Ikeda highlighted TIFFCOM’s role in helping propel the continuous growth of the industry, with programs that focus on projects from their initial stages of development onward, as well as the second Story Market, the fifth annual Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, and a selection of films from Italy.
 
Internationally acclaimed Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, who will serve as the President of the International Competition Jury at the 37th TIFF, sent a message that was shared with the audience. His fellow jurors will be Hungarian film director and screenwriter Enyedi Ildikó, Japanese actor Hashimoto Ai, French actor Chiara Mastroianni, and Hong Kong director and producer Johnnie To.
 
The 37th TIFF Festival Navigator Kikuchi Rinko then took to the stage, and shared her thoughts on serving in the role, noting that the festival provides both filmmakers and audiences with the “rare and precious opportunity” to meet one another and share the common language of cinema.

 
Following an introduction to TIFF Opening Film 11 Rebels (by Shiraishi Kazuya) and Closing Film Marcello Mio (by Christophe Honoré), TIFF Programming Director Ichiyama Shozo shared highlights of the festival’s ten sections, including the Competition, Gala Selection, and others. The Competition includes 15 films*, nine of them world premieres, selected from among 2,023 titles from 110 countries and regions.
→ *The full list of Competition titles.
 
Three Japanese directors whose work will receive world premieres in Competition then joined Ichiyama on stage to make remarks about their selection: Katayama Shinzo (Lust in the Rain), Ohku Akiko (She Taught Me Serendipity) and Yoshida Daihachi (Teki Cometh).
 
Senior Programmer Ishizaka Kenji appeared by video to introduce the Asian Future section lineup and provide highlights of the 10 films from emerging filmmakers in Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong and Japan, all of whom are receiving their world premieres and will be eligible for awards. He noted that the tightly curated selection features directors who are sure to become future masters.
→ Asian Future section lineup
 
Ichiyama then returned to introduce the Nippon Cinema Now section, which will showcase 12 new and recent Japanese films, before inviting the section’s Director in Focus, Irie Yu (A Girl Named Ann) on stage to make remarks about the special program that will highlight five of his works. Irie joked that he’d appeared at TIFF the first time wearing a tracksuit (for the 2008 film 8000 Miles: SR Saitama’s Rapper), but he’d grown up and was now wearing a business suit.
→ Nippon Cinema Now section lineup

 
A newly established section, Women’s Empowerment, focusing on films directed by female filmmakers or on female-centric themes, will be co-hosted with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at TIFF 37. Senior Programmer Andrijana Cvetkovikj gave an overview of the section’s goals and themes. She noted, “I grew up in a world where a girl’s dream of becoming a director was a far-fetched one; so I’m proud to be a part of this transformation. With this program, we advocate for an inclusive world where there is gender equality in cinema.”
→ Women’s Empowerment section lineup
 
Animation Programming Advisor Fujitsu Ryota provided an overview of the Animation section, which includes internationally acclaimed animated works as well as Japanese titles. It will feature seven recent Japanese masterworks, as well as five films from overseas, including the Annecy International Animation Film Festival award winning films, and a 50th anniversary screening of the influential Space Battleship Yamato, which will also be the subject of one of the section’s three seminars.
→ Animation section lineup
 

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For the fifth year, TIFF and The Japan Foundation will be co-presenting the popular TIFF Lounge talk sessions, featuring leading auteurs from Asia and beyond. This year’s participants will include Johnnie To, Eric Khoo and others. Among the many other event highlights will be a masterclass with Hong Kong filmmaker and superstar Sammo Hung; a Kering’s Women In Motion event; a Tarr Béla symposium entitled “The Fukushima Hamadori Film, Art and Culture Project × Tokyo International Film Festival 2024 — Fukushima Hamadori as Seen with Béla Tarr;” and an Asian Film Student Exchange Program masterclass with Kurosawa Kiyoshi.
 
The 37th TIFF will be held from October 28 to November 6, 2024 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area and other venues in Tokyo.
 
FOR THE FULL 37th TIFF LINEUP:
https://2024.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/list.html
 

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Comments from Press Conference Guests
Kikuchi Rinko, Festival Navigator, 37th TIFF
I’m delighted and honored to have this role this year, and I’m determined to do my best to support TIFF. I grew up watching films and learned so many things, and when I left the theater I would feel so motivated and energized. I could take the lives of the film’s characters home with me, and I could reflect them in my own acting. Having this festival in Tokyo is something special. I’ve been involved in many films and represented them at many festivals, and I’ve always appreciated the gift of audiences being able to see what I’ve been doing. At TIFF, I look forward to meeting many filmmakers and actors, having face-to-face chats with them. This festival gives us the rare and precious opportunity to meet all these people. We share the common language of cinema, which is so important.
 
Katayama Shinzo Director of Competition film Lust in the Rain
I am so delighted to be part of TIFF again. This time, the setting of my film Lust in the Rain is Taiwan. We can’t find this kind of special environment and scenery in Japan anymore, so I hope you will enjoy it.

 
Ohku Akiko, Director of Competition film She Taught Me Serendipity
This is the third time for me to join TIFF, and I’m so happy to be back. I was so surprised when my film Tremble All You Want was selected, and then it won the Audience Award, so I want to thank TIFF for discovering me. I received the Audience Award twice at TIFF, and I would like to contribute to the festival in some way to show my appreciation. The main character of my film She Taught Me Serendipity is a college student. I wanted to include all the things in the lives of youth that would convey messages that I wanted to convey. The young actors are so brilliant, that I shot for a long time, to highlight their talent. I’m looking forward to how people feel about the film.

 
Yoshida Daihachi Director of Competition film Teki Cometh
I was invited to TIFF Competition 10 years back with A Pale Moon, and I also showed A Beautiful Star in the Japan Now section about eight years ago. I remember that it was all very festive. My film Teki Cometh is an adaptation of Tsutsui Yasutaka’s novel, which I read during the Covid pandemic and started thinking about filming. I used monochrome to express the stoic lives of the characters. It’s the first time I’ve portrayed a monochrome world, but I hope it will inspire the audience.

 
Comments from the TIFF Chairman, Programming Director
Ando Hiroyasu, Chairman, 37th TIFF
In order to assure that TIFF achieves its mission to amplify the possibilities of cinema from Tokyo, we have implemented three main principles that will deliver an engaging festival, based on enhancing international exchange efforts, initiatives to nurture talents for the industry’s future, and programs to empower women in the industry.
 
We are really focused on creating vibrant communications between people, fostering greater exchange between Japanese and international film industries. The fifth year of the TIFF Lounge will be held with exciting guests from Japan and overseas. Earlier this year, the Japan-Italy co-production agreement was signed, the first between Japan and the West, and we’ll be showcasing films by Nanni Moretti, and Chiara Mastroianni will serve on the Competition Jury as well as starring in our Closing Film, Marcello Mio. We’d also like to continue enhancing our ties with Asian countries.
 
Among our initiatives to nurture talents for the industry’s future, we will host the TIFF Teens Meet Cinema Workshop, a masterclass for Asian students with Kurosawa Kiyoshi and a masterclass led by Tarr Béla. Two previous winners of the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award, which was co-hosted with TIFF for the past three years, will be showcasing their feature-film debuts in the Nippon Cinema Now section of TIFF.
 
As previously announced, we have also established a new Women’s Empowerment section, focusing on films that have been made by women and/or are female-forward, and we also have a non-Japanese programmer in charge of the selection. Kering’s Women In Motion will also feature the 37th TIFF ambassador, Kikuchi Rinko.
 
Ichiyama Shozo, Programming Director, 37th TIFF
The number of submissions for the Competition section was higher this year, with very high quality, making our selection challenging. We’ve especially focused on East Asian films this year, and hope that you’ll come and watch them in the theaters. We have also selected films from Colombia, China, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Portugal, France, Hong Kong, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan. The directors and actors will be coming to TIFF, so please look forward to the Competition section.
 
In the Gala Selection, we have quite a wide selection, with some work by auteurs whose films are coming directly from Cannes. For the nine-film World Focus section, we have four documentaries, including the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and we also have a special Director in Focus section with three films from Italian director Nanni Moretti. We are featuring films to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni and films by Mexican maestro Arturo Ripstein, most of them for the first time in Japan.
 
In the Nippon Cinema Now section, we have 12 titles. Our Director in Focus this year is Irie Yu, and we will be showing four of his recent films. We also have feature debuts from two previous winners from the Amazon Prime Take One Awards, and a film shot in Japan and elsewhere by UK director Mark Gill featuring actor Asano Tadanobu.
 

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During a Q&A session at the end of the press conference, a journalist asked what the Competition filmmakers felt that the role of TIFF should be.
 
Said Ohku Akiko, “For me, to be discovered by TIFF allowed me to see a different world and have a lot of opportunities. One of the critical roles for a festival is to find newcomers and to disseminate their work to the world.”
 
Yoshida Daihachi stressed that “TIFF brings a lot of people together, so I hope it has a long life.”
 
Katayama Shinzo noted, “I think the festival opens the doors to people who weren’t really interested in film before.”
 
Irie Yu commented: “Making films in Japan, one encounters really limited resources. I’ve had the chance to shoot in other countries, and I’d like to discuss this situation with others at the festival.”
 
Kikuchi Rinko said, “Through this festival, I can get connected to people in the film industry. I want to meet directors and perhaps have the opportunity to appear in their films in the future.”
 

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• Number of submissions for the 37th TIFF: 2,023 films (last year: 1,942)
• Number of countries and regions: 110 (last year: 114)
• Films by female directors: 35 (approx. 19.44%)
*Directors are counted only once, regardless of the number of titles they are showing at TIFF.
*The number of films by female directors last year was 35, including 3 co-directed works with both male and female directors (approx. 20.59%).