Women bag top awards in Tokyo Film Fest
FEMALE-LED films by female directors reigned at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) after bagging top awards in the main competition section.
An Albanian film about a woman taking on a male-centered world after her husband’s suicide was named the winner of the Tokyo Grand Prix, while a Romanian film about a mother looking for her daughter who was kidnapped by a Mexican cartel won the Special Jury Prize at the festival.
Kaltrina Krasniqi’s Vera Dreams of the Sea was described as a “touching portrait of a woman grappling with the death of her husband and a commentary into the structures of patriarchy that strangles those who do not partici-pate in the deep-set rules of the game set by men,” by French actress Isabelle Huppert, jury president, during the awards ceremony held on Nov. 8. This is Ms. Krasniqi’s debut feature.
Meanwhile Teodora Ana Mihai’s La Civil was a film that “[explored] the devastating effects of the cartels in Mexico,” said jury member, film producer and curator Lorna Tee.
“The director and scriptwriter have masterfully crafted a narrative that gives us complex characters and everyone is complicit in the unending cycles of violence and loss. It is an accomplished first feature by a director not afraid to give us a film based on true stories that had taken many lives in a country torn apart by drugs and violence,” she added.
This is also Ms. Mihai’s debut feature. It previously won the Prize of Courage in the Un Certain Regard Section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Eight of the 15 main competition films of this year’s hybrid festival were films about women struggling against the patriarchy.
“In the past, a folkloric view of cultures has often been prevalent in world cinema, but this was not the case in Tokyo this year. The competition gave us many portrayals of women,” Ms. Huppert said in a statement. “The pro-tagonists… all face overwhelming difficulties… yet it is very striking that none of the protagonists is shown as a victim. Each of these women becomes able to recognize and confront her enemy.”
A MORE INTERNATIONAL TOKYO INT’L FILM FEST
After its 10-day run, this year’s TIFF set the stage for the future of one of the most prestigious film festivals in Asia. It was a year of changes — from changing the venue from the Roppongi to Hibiya, introducing a hybrid program, and the introduction of a new programming director — meant to “internationalize the festival,” according to TIFF chairman Hiroyasu Ando.
“I would like to bring in more film people and film critics and journalists from abroad and mix with the Japanese counterparts… so that people can come up with co-productions and exchanges of comparing the reviews, etc.,” Mr. Ando told reporters during a roundtable interview held via Zoom on Nov. 5.
He pointed out that in previous years, the “internationality” of the festival was, “frankly speaking, not so strong and remarkable,” which was the reason for the sweeping changes made to the festival.
Moving from Roppongi, where the festival had been held for years, to the Hibiya area, Mr. Ando said, was also to appeal to a wider public.
“The Hibiya-Yurakucho-Ginza district has been called a town for cinema and theater… that’s one of the many reasons (for the shift),” he explained.
The hybrid program will also continue as the online component is “quite useful” and “can appeal to many people in foreign countries,” Mr. Ando remarked. — contributed by ZB Chua
Tokyo International Film Festival winners Competition Section
Tokyo Grand Prix, The Governor of Tokyo Award: Vera Dreams of the Sea by Kaltrina Krasniqi
Special Jury Prize: La Civil by Teodora Ana Mihai
Award for Best Director: Darezhan Omirbaev (Poet)
Award for Best Actress: Julia Chávez (The Other Tom)
Award for Best Actor: Amir Aghaee, Fatih Al, Baris Yildiz, Onur Buldu (The Four Walls)
Award for Best Artistic Contribution: Crane Lantern by Hilal Baydarov
Audience Award: Just Remembering by Matsui Daigo
Special Mention: Just Remembering by Matsui Daigo
Asian Future section
Asian Future Best Film Award: World, Northern Hemisphere by Hossein Tehrani
Amazon Prime Video Take One Award: Sunday & Calm Sea by Kim Yunsoo
Amazon Prime Video Take One Award Special Jury Prize: Under the Bridge by Sangoumi Midori
