The Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled the Gala and Animation selections for its 39th edition, bringing a mix of recent festival standouts, star-driven international titles and high-profile Japanese animation to the Japanese capital next month.
The festival’s 15-title Gala Selection includes Martin McDonagh’s soulful black comedy Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi; Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, with Pedro Pascal and Olivia Wilde; Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; Michael Showalter’s Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, led by Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson; and Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
The section will also feature several prominent Asian titles, including Japanese filmmaker Sabu’s Taiwan-set Arrested Memory, which stars Ethan Juan and Wayne Wang’s Tokyo-set Diary of a Mad Old Man, starring Lily Franky and Fan Bingbing. The lineup also includes Yukiko Sode’s Cannes standout All the Lovers in the Night, Kazuya Shiraishi’s Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar and the feature adaptation The Tiger and Her Wings The Movie.
On the animation side, the festival’s 12-title program ranges from major Japanese studio productions to new international work. Among the most buzzy entries is Grotesqqque, an original anthology feature from director Atsushi Nishigori and CloverWorks, the studio behind Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock!.
Other highlights include Shingo Natsume’s first original feature, Ghost – End of Night, produced by Madhouse; DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island, directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado; and the Cannes favorite We Are Aliens from Kohei Kadowaki. Tokyo will also present a three-film mini-sidebar titled Women Directors: Diverse Visions, comprising Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire, Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom and The Rose of Versailles.
The Gala Selection will also bring Cate Blanchett to Tokyo as part of a showcase devoted to the Displacement Film Fund, the initiative she co-founded to support displaced filmmakers and the stories of displaced people. Five DFF-backed shorts will screen in the festival, followed by a Q&A with Blanchett and acclaimed Middle Eastern filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) and Shahrbanoo Sadat (No Good Men).
Blanchett’s festival appearance is timed to coincide with another major honor: The two-time Oscar winner will be in Tokyo the same week to receive the Praemium Imperiale, Japan’s prestigious international arts prize presented annually to honor lifetime achievement in painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theater/film. “In a world where conflict and persecution are driving displacement and division, cinematic storytelling has a vital role to play in connecting with the experiences of others,” Blanchett said in announcing her TIFF visit.
The Gala and Animation titles join a program that already includes TIFF’s opening film Sukiyaki, the centerpiece title Godzilla Minus Zero and closing feature Colony. The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26-Nov. 4, while the accompanying TIFFCOM market takes place Oct. 28-30.
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