Tokyo International Film Festival

Why it is worth going

The festival opens on 26 October with Sukiyaki, takes Godzilla Minus Zero as its centerpiece and closes on 4 November with Colony.¹ The Gala Selection brings Cristian Mungiu's Fjord, which won the Palme d'Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beloved with Javier Bardem, and Tony Gilroy's Behemoth! with Pedro Pascal.² Rolf de Heer, whose films have won prizes at Venice and Cannes, presides over the jury of the 15-film International Competition.³ Cate Blanchett attends the Japan premiere of five short films from her Displacement Film Fund, with a Q&A after the screening at Hulic Hall Tokyo on 30 October.⁴ With the National Film Archive of Japan, the festival marks 70 years since Mizoguchi Kenji's death with 13 of his films from 27 October to 1 November, most in new digital restorations and all with English subtitles; The Water Magician (1933) is shown in Japan for the first time in its restored version, and some programmes have live benshi narration and music.⁵