OVERVIEW

This year marked the centenary of the first showing in Kobe of Edison's "Kinetoscope." This memorial year prompted many important screenings for Nippon Cinema Classics. The French film The Danger Line, featuring the husband and wife combination of Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuruko Aoki, was shown for the first time in seventy years with the cooperation of the Centre National de la Cinematographie of France. Also shown were Chushingura, The Casebook of Umon: His Third Achievement, and The Unrivalled Hero, which had all been partially preserved on 9.5 mm film and restored on 35 mm film.
Among other programs of the festival was a focus on director Abolfazl Jalili, who presented Det Means Girl at the previous year's Venice Film Festival as well as an Film Director TAKESHI KITANO International Symposium & Retrospective, the director of Kids Return, which was shown at Cannes earlier in the year. This year marked the first time that subtitles developed by Saburo Hori of the Athénée Français Cultural Center were used. These subtitles are still used on some films screened at TIFF.

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1. Director Agnés Varda of One Hundred and One Nights (right) and Etsuko Takano from the Tokyo International Women’s Film Festival. 2. Director Hong Sang-soo of The Day a Pig Fell into the Well in the Young Cinema Competition section. 3. Film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa introduces Special Screenings film The Birdcage. 4. Alex Cox, director and writer of Competition film Death and the Compass. 5. International Competition juror Tian Zhuang-zhuang (6th TIFF Grand-prix winner The Blue Kite director) meets director Kinji Fukasaku. 6. Director Roland Emmerich (left) and star Will Smith at the opening screening of Independence Day. 7. Jackie Chan (center) attends a screening of First Strike. 8. Etsushi Toyokawa, lead actor of The 8-Tomb Village, at the screening.

Awards

International Competition Total number of applications: 242 films from 47 countries / regions

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Kolya / Director: Jan Svérák

Special Jury Prize

In Full Gallopo / Director: Krzysztof Zanussi

Special Jury Prize

Libertarias / Director: Vicente Aranda

Best Director Award

Wu Tian-ming / The King of Masks

Best Screenplay Award

Zdenék Svérák / Kolya

Best Actress Award

Hildegunn Riise / The Other Side of Sunday

Best Actress Award

Marie Theisen / The Other Side of Sunday

Best Actor Award

Zhu Xu / The King of Masks

Best Artistic Contribution Award

Ryohkan / Director: Masahisa Sadanaga

Best Artistic Contribution Award

Gabbeh / Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Young Cinema Competition Total number of applications: 247 films from 39 countries / regions

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Last Holiday / Director: Amir Karakulov

Tokyo Silver Prize

A Drifting Life / Director: Lin Cheng-sheng

Tokyo Bronze Prize

Bandwagon / Director: John Schultz

Juries

International Competition

President of the Jury

Serge Silberman (Producer)

Jury

Rebecca De Mornay (Actress / Producer / Director)

Christopher Hampton (Screenplay writer / Director)

Tian Zhuangzhuang (Director)

Yoshinobu Nishioka (Production Designer / Producer)

Young Cinema Competition

President of the Jury

Hou Hsiao-hsien (Director)

Jury

Ruth Vitale (Producer)

Jintara Sukaphat (Actress)

Sergei Bodrov (Director / Screenwriter / Producer)

Yasushi Kawarabata (Film Critic)

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