The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival has announced a slate of cultural programs running alongside its main competition, headlined by a 13-film retrospective honoring Mizoguchi Kenji on the 70th anniversary of his death, a symposium exploring a potential new international anime award, and a 10th-anniversary celebration of its Teens Cinema Workshop.
The Mizoguchi tribute, staged as TIFF/NFAJ Classics in collaboration with the National Film Archive of Japan, runs Oct. 27–Nov. 1 at the Archive’s Nagase Memorial Theatre Ozu. All 13 films screen with English subtitles across 12 programs, with an emphasis on newly restored prints. The standout presentation is “The Water Magician” (1933), receiving its first screening in Japan in a new digital restoration carried out with support from the Yanai Initiative, a joint project of Waseda University and UCLA. The retrospective also includes live benshi narration and musical accompaniment alongside guest talks.
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Fan Bingbing, Pedro Pascal, John Malkovich, Javier Bardem Films Lead Tokyo Festival’s Gala Selection
The full screening schedule spans “Osaka Elegy” (1936), “Sisters of Gion” (1936), “The 47 Ronin” (Parts One and Two, 1941–42), “The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums” (digital restoration, 1939), “Yang Kwei Fei” (1955), “New Tales of the Taira Clan” (digital restoration, 1955), “Street of Shame” (digital restoration, 1956), “Gion Bayashi” (1953), “Ugetsu” (digital restoration, 1953), “Sansho the Bailiff” (digital restoration, 1954) and “A Story From Chikamatsu” (digital restoration, 1954).
At the festival’s market TIFFCOM, Tokyo Anime Next will stage a one-hour symposium on Oct. 30 titled “Toward the Launch of a New Anime Award in 2027,” examining the case for an international prize led by the Japanese animation industry. Speakers include Shimizu Akira, director of the Association of Japanese Animations and president and representative director of A-1 Pictures, with TIFF Animation programming advisor Fujitsu Ryota moderating. The TIFF Animation section will also present three separate symposia featuring directors from Japan and abroad, with details to follow.
The TIFF Teens Cinema Workshop, which offers secondary school students hands-on filmmaking training, marks its 10th year with a special Nov. 3 event at Toho Cinemas Chanter. Past lead mentors – directors Suwa Nobuhiro (2017), Sugita Kyoshi (2019), Seta Natsuki (2021) and Hayakawa Chie (2022) – will participate in screenings and discussions. The workshop has also shifted from its traditional August schedule to March going forward. A new companion program, TIFF Teens Cine Club, offering participants deeper engagement with film through both making and watching, is planned, with details to be announced. Both programs are co-hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Rounding out the education strand, the fourth TIFF International Symposium on Film Education takes place Oct. 31 at the National Film Archive of Japan, under the theme “Developing Educators and Building Support for Film Education.” The free event includes guests from France, with consecutive interpretation in Japanese, French and English.
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26–Nov. 4. TIFFCOM runs Oct. 28–30.
