Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 39th edition, including 15 titles in its Competition strand and the featu
Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 39th edition, including 15 titles in its Competition strand and the features that will compete for the Asian Future and modern Nippon Cinema Now awards.
The festival has programmed 204 films, up from 183 in 2025, and will take place from October 26 to November 4.
Scroll down for Competition, Asian Future and Nippon Cinema Now titles
The main Competition includes films from Asia, Europe and South America, and seven world premieres alongside titles previously seen at Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto.
World premieres include The Canary’s Lullaby, a Taiwan-Japan co-production from director Akira Ikeda, who won the Rotterdam Tiger Award in 2014 with Anatomy Of A Paper Clip. His latest is a fantasy drama about an elderly woman who bonds with a strange baby creature found in the mountains, only to be ostracised from her superstitious village.
Also set to bow at Tokyo is Fuxi: Four Tales Of Feasting, the second film by China’s Qiu Jiongjiong after 2021 Locarno jury prize winner A New Old Play. The ambitious epic is told through surreal feasts over four millennia and shot entirely inside a hand-painted studio. It stars Lee Kang-sheng, a regular in Tsai Ming-liang films.
Garin Nugroho, an acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker with more than 20 narrative features to his name – including Venice selections Opera Jawa (2006) and Memories Of My Body (2018) – returns with Red Before Dawn. Set in 1946 Indonesia, it stars Nicholas Saputra as a geologist on a mission to deliver investigative documents amid post-independence turmoil.
Sister Brother Manhole Cover is a satire from Macedonian-US director Milcho Manchevski, whose debut Before The Rain won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1994 and was last at Tokyo in 2022 with Kaymak. Further world premieres include Two Cigarettes, Three Nights from Japan’s Yukiko Mishima, director of Dear Etranger; and France-Hong Kong co-production The Night That Binds Us by Wang Jiangyong, about a student in Shanghai who finds romance with a middle-aged dorm manager.
Heading to Tokyo after first being seen at Venice are Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride, a supernatural drama set in a Bangladesh beauty parlour; Samuele Rossi’s Second World War resistance drama Even If Hell Came; and Jelena Maksimović’s Until The Day Ends, a coming-of-age story set against Serbia’s student demonstrations.
Also receiving their Asian premieres are Double Freedom by Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso, first seen in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; Teodora Ana Mihai’s political thriller Heysel 85, which premiered at Berlin; Sun Xun’s Magic Atlas, which bowed at Locarno; and Bahman Ghobadi’s Trees Are Watching, starring Eva Green, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and fresh from Toronto. Rounding out the selection is Memories Of Prison from Portugal’s Sérgio Graciano, who was last in Competition at Tokyo with The Englishman’s Papers in 2024.
The Competition jury will be led by Australian auteur Rolf de Heer, who will aid select the winners of several prizes including the Tokyo Grand Prix.
The festival’s other competitive section is Asian Future, for rising Asian filmmakers who have directed up to three films, and comprises 10 films, of which eight are world premieres. They include I’m Nothing Special Really by Iranian actor-turned-director Navid Mohammadzadeh, Jani Be Good by Indonesia’s Ariani Darmawan’s, Miracle Summer by Japan’s Ronglin Cai, and On The Heights by South Korea’s Kim Hyun-min.
New this year, the long-running Nippon Cinema Now section, focussed on contemporary Japanese film, will introduce two awards: best film and a special jury prize. The prizes have been created to provide stronger support for undiscovered Japanese talent and highlight their work on a global stage.
Titles in the 10-strong selection include Earthlings In Love from One Cut Of The Dead filmmaker, which originated as a 30-part vertical series and has been restructured as a feature film. The section will also include Silver Express from Miki Tanaka, which is set to premiere in Competition at Busan, and Yaza Takenoshin’s Hinotama: Ball Of Fire, which will also compete in Busan’s Vision-Asia strand.
As previously announced, this year’s festival is set to open with the world premiere of musical drama Sukiyaki and close with Korean zombie blockbuster Colony with monster sequel Godzilla Minus Zero as the Centrepiece feature.
They form part of the Gala selection, which includes festival favourites such as Chrisian Mungiu’s Fjord, winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes; and five shorts from the Displacement Film Fund, including titles from Mohammad Rasoulof and Shahrbanoo Sadat, presented by Cate Blanchett.
Further sections include World Focus, Animation, Women’s Empowerment, Crosscut Asia+, Classics, Youth and Asian Students Film Conference.
The 39th edition will be the first under Takeo Hisamatsu since returning as festival director in April, having previously held the role from 2017-21. Shozo Ichiyama oversaw the selection as programming director alongside Kenji Ishizaka as senior programmer (Asian Future), Ryota Fujitsu as programming advisor (animation section) and programmer Yu Shimizu (Women’s Empowerment, Youth).
Tokyo International Film Festival 2026
Competition
The Canary’s Lullaby (Tai-Japan)
Dir. Akira Ikeda
The Difficult Bride (Fr-Bang-Port-Nor-Ger)
Dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
Double Freedom (Chile-Arg-Lux-Ger-UK)
Dir. Lisandro Alonso
Even If Hell Came (It)
Dir. Samuele Rossi
Fuxi: Four Tales Of Feasting (HK-Tai-Japan-Saudi-Qatar)
Dir. Qiu Jiongjiong
Heysel 85 (Bel-Neth-Ger)
Dir. Teodora Ana Mihai
The Intertwining (Japan)
Dir. Akira Yamamoto
Magic Atlas (Sing)
Dir. Sun Xun
Memories Of Prison (Port)
Dir. Sérgio Graciano
The Night That Binds Us (Fr-HK)
Dir. Wang Jiangyong
Red Before Dawn (Indo)
Dir. Garin Nugroho
Sister Brother Manhole Cover (N Mac-Bul-Serb-Alb-It-UK)
Dir. Milcho Manchevski
Trees Are Watching (Turkey)
Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Two Cigarettes, Three Nights (Japan)
Dir. Yukiko Mishima
Until the Day Ends (Serb-Bul-Slov-Mont-Cro-Ger)
Dir. Jelena Maksimović
Asian Future
EDJOP (Phil)
Dir. Katski Flores
I’m Nothing Special Really (Iran)
Dir. Navid Mohammadzadeh
Jani Be Good (Indo)
Dir. Ariani Darmawan
Miracle Summer (Japan)
Dir. Ronglin Cai
On The Heights (S Kor)
Dir. Kim Hyun-min
The Paper Flower (India)
Dir. Chezhiyan
Saravah (Japan)
Dir. Hironori Kujiraoka
Serife Tavsan (Switz-Turkey)
Dir. Tareq Daoud
Shyrmauyq (Kazak)
Dir. Azamat Shargyn
Silver (Iran)
Dir. Soheil Karimi
Nippon Cinema Now
Between Us (Japan)
Dir. Shingo Matsumura
Okinawa Saudade (Japan)
Dir. Yoju Matsubayashi
Kefi (Japan)
Dir. Kisin Saito
Earthlings In Love (Japan)
Dir. Shinichiro Ueda
Silver Express (Japan)
Dir. Tanaka Miki
Hinotama: Ball Of Fire (Japan)
Dir. Takenoshin Yaza
Plastic Love! (Japan-Austria)
Dir. Sybilla Patrizia, Clementine Nuttall
Chihiro | Akemi (Japan)
Dir. Satoshi Natori
Yamazaki Riverside -Over An Actor’s Shoulder- (Japan)
Dir. Isshin Inudo
