Akira Kurosawa, whose film Ran opened the 1st TIFF, died on September 6. A special memorial program was quickly prepared for Nippon Cinema Classics upon this news, showing all 30 films directed by Kurosawa. TIFF received messages from Theo Angelopoulos, George Lucas, Abbas Kiarostami, Martin Scorsese, Nikita Mikhalkov, and other prominent directors from around the world.
The film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa who was instrumental in supporting not only TIFF but also the Japanese cinema as a whole, and director Keisuke Kinoshita, passed away this year.
The renowned Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune passed away the previous year.

1. Brad Pitt attends the closing screening of Meet Joe Black. 2. Press conference for Wait and See. From left: director Shinji Somai, actress Shiho Fujimura, actress Yuki Saito, actor Koichi Sato and actress Sumiko Fuji. 3. Crew and cast members from Armageddon at the opening screening. From left: Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, director Michael Bay. Fifth from left: Bruce Willis, Jerry Bruckheimer and his wife.