Tokyo film festival chairman says gender issues and future talent are priorities for 2025 edition

According to festival president Hiroyasu Ando, ​​fostering gender imbalances and future talent in the film industry will be in the spotlight at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF, May 5, October 27th).

Speaking at a press conference held in Tokyo to launch this year’s program, Ando highlighted three factors the festival will work on working on in upcoming editions.

They include addressing gender issues. This brings the female empowerment strand back to her second year. This section consists of seven films and three panels, and describes the female filmmakers and the female film festival.

“Today, digital cinemas and AI are restructuring our industry and creating new tools for underrated voices, but the overall gender balance of the film industry has not changed.”

“Our hope is that this section does more than inspire us, we want to open doors, create partnerships, create spaces where women can support and mentor each other.

“With conflicts occurring all over the world, we want to contribute to harmony by deepening our understanding through the media of film,” Ando said in his opening statement.

Tiff also aims to promote future creative talent by holding short film competitions featuring films at film schools in Japan and Asia. This new section, entitled Asian Student ‘Film Conference, will replace the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award as Tiff’s section focuses on future talent.

The third priority is to strengthen the TIFF lounge at the festival, which launched in 2020, to host discussions among major Asian filmmakers. This year, we’ll see veteran filmmaker Yojiyamada talking to box office director Lee San-il Hello He also won this year’s Honorary Kurosaki Akira Award. Yamada’s Tokyo Taxi Play as a feature of the festival’s highlights and mark 91^st Functions by the director.

In addition to these discussions, Ando said the festival will increase networking opportunities and host parties of various sizes, including its first official closure party in five years.

Foreign guests are expected to include American writer/director Paul Schroeder from the 1985 feature Mishima: Living in 4 chapters Play in the Classics section. The film is a fictional, fictional portrait of the acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio, and has never been released in Japan.