Tokyo Film Festival to Focus on Koji Fukada

Patrick Frater
·2 min read

The Tokyo International Film Festival will shine a spotlight on the work of internationally-acclaimed Japanese director Koji Fukada during its 33rd edition. The festival will be held in front of live audiences Oct. 31 – Nov. 9, 2020.

Fukada, who graduated from The Film School of Tokyo, has worked in both animation and live action film. His debut feature “Human Comedy in Tokyo,” played at the Rome and Osaka festivals. He achieved wider acclaim in 2010 with “Hospitalité,” which appeared in the Tokyo festival that year. His “Harmonium” premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2016 and claimed the Jury Prize.

Since then, Fukada has made “The Man From the Sea” (2018), followed by the Locarno International Film Festival selection “A Girl Missing” (2019). His latest film, “The Real Thing” was named to the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 Official Selection.

“The stories depicted by Koji Fukada always reflect the real world. His films express the relationship between us and our world in a realistic way, and project it onto the relationship between the audience and the screen. With the future ahead of us so difficult to predict, now is the time to be in touch with films that meticulously capture the world,” said Kohei Ando, Tokyo festival programming advisor.

“It was a huge boost for my career as a film director to have participated in and won the award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2010. It has been a decade since then, which makes me realize that the film festival is a place that fosters artistry. I feel I am making a fresh start for the next decade through TIFF’s invitation in this milestone year of 2020,” said Fukada, in his own statement. “The threat of COVID-19 is still continuing, and not only the film industry but many other industries are facing difficulties. But I hope that you will come to the film festival to broaden and refresh your outlook.”

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