Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Bloom of Yesterday [ Die Blumen von Gestern ]（Director : Chris Kraus）

2016 / Germany=Austria

While studying the Holocaust with his eccentric female assistant，a stubborn researcher makes an unexpected discovery. With a touch of romantic comedy，this drama depicts the shadow that these historical events continue to cast over people’s lives.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Nise - The Heart of Madness [ Nise - O Coração da Loucura ]（Director : Roberto Berliner）

2015 / Brazil

Nise takes a job at a mental hospital，where shock therapy is routine and patients are abused. She proposes reforms，but soon comes up against a conservative，male order. The film depicts the struggles of a psychiatrist who bucks conventional wisdom.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Heaven Knows What（Director : Joshua Safdie、Benny Safdie）

2014 / USA=France

This drama focuses on the bleak prospects of young junkies struggling to survive in New York，which is depicted in a painful yet fresh way，and a woman’s desperate love for a man. This ambitious work reflects the independent spirits of the directors，whose debut film was praised in Cannes.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

We Are the Best! [ Vi är bäst! ]（Director : Lukas Moodysson）

2013 / Sweden

Forget about problems at home and elsewhere，just make some noise! Set in the early 1980s，this bittersweet and exhilarating film from renowned Swedish director Moodysson focuses on the lives of junior high school girls whose adolescent impulses drive them to start a punk band.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Other Son [ Le fils de l'Autre ]（Director : Lorraine Lévy）

2012 / France

A young Israeli undergoes a military physical exam and learns of his true parentage，shaking the identities and beliefs of two families in Israel and Palestine. A moving drama about liberation from deep-seated hatred.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Untouchable / Director: Eric Toledano & Olivier Nakache

2011 / France

A moving drama tracing the growth of an indomitable friendship transcending social class, race, and age between a rich man paralyzed from a spinal injury and a poor young man assigned to his care.The filmmakers interviewed the author of the memoir that inspired its story, and shared his stance of maintaining a humorous outlook. While touching upon the positive and negative aspects of modern French society, it presents a funny and moving depiction of male friendship.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Intimate Grammar / Director: Nir Bergman

2010 / Israel

This film is set in a miraculously peaceful Israel in 1963, prior to the Six-Day War. Based on a story by author David Grossman who has long been involved in the peace movement, it depicts defiance of the turbulent times on the horizon through the emotional journey of a young man who has ceased to grow. This successful adaptation by director Bergman, which adds comedic elements to the weighty source material, brought him his second TIFF Grand Prix win following Broken Wing.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Eastern Plays / Director: Kamen Kalev

2009 / Bulgaria

A striking evocation of conflicted souls who have lost their way in an evolving Eastern European city. Director Kalev found the inspiration for this film in the real life experiences of his lead actor Christov. Captivated by the way of life of his longtime friend, he offered him the role. Places and people from his past also make appearances. Christov, who died in an accident soon after the film was shot, was posthumously awarded Best Actor at TIFF.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

TULPAN / Director: Sergey Dvortsevoy

2008 / Germany=Switzerland=Kazakhstan=Russia=Poland

A sailor returns to Kazakhstan to wed a sheepherder's daughter, but she refuses because of his big ears. A unique evocation of nature's severity and the simplicity of nomadic life. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes and Best First Feature at the London Film Festival.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Band's Visit / Director: Eran Kolirin

2007 / Israel=France

An Egyptian police orchestra is invited to Israel to foster peaceful relations, but no-one is waiting to greet them and they become lost. The group ends up in a town where a female restaurant owner takes pity on them and allows them to stay for the night. This film, a warm depiction of Egyptians and Israelis - former enemies - transcending the barriers of language, culture, and history through music, was director Kolirin's feature debut.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

OSS 117, Cairo Nest of Spies / Director: Michel Hazanavicius

2006 / France

In 1955, Cairo is a hotbed of espionage. While good guys, bad guys, former royalty, religious sects, and various other people and items are engaged in stealthy maneuvering, French spy OSS 117 sparks an uproar. While harking back to the films of old, it also recreates their more cliched moments to maximum effect. This style of filmmaking was demonstrated to the fullest in director Hazanavicius' The Artist, which won Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards.

Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

What the Snow Brings / Director: Kichitaro Negishi

2005 / Japan

“Rather than the explicit, I'm strongly drawn to people and things that are difficult to understand,” says director Negishi. This film was made as a result of his interest in Banei racing, in which horses pull heavy sleds over a obstacle-laden course. The freezing air of the northern plains and the wavering emotions of its characters are brilliantly captured. This film became the first in TIFF history to win awards in four categories.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

WHISKY / Director: Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll

2004 / Uruguay=Argentina=Germany=Spain

A stocking factory manager asks a female employee to pretend to be his wife when he is suddenly visited by his younger brother. This heartwarming and offbeat ensemble comedy from Uruguay infuses pathos into its observations of a trio who end up in an unusual living arrangement.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Nuan / Director: Huo Jianqi

2003 / China

Jinghe, a government worker in Beijing, returns to his home village for the first time in ten years. He intends to stay only briefly because of his wife and child, but forgotten memories come flooding back when he reunites with his first love Nuan on a bridge. Based on a novel by Mo Yan, who also wrote Red Sorghum. Director Huo's earlier film Postmen in the Mountains won Best Picture at the Golden Rooster Awards and the Montreal World Film Festival's People's Choice Award.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Broken Wings / Director: Nir Bergman

2002 / Israel

A father suddenly dies and a family of five attempt to overcome the pain of their loss despite their problems, which revolve around conflict and antagonism between the mother and her daughter. Director Bergman takes on another story focusing on a family after painstakingly depicting the psychology of a young boy with a complicated home environment in his debut short Sea Horse. This domestic drama exudes affection for humanity and elicits a deep emotional response.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Slogans / Director: Gjergj Xhuvani

2001 / Albania=France

In Albania under a communist regime in the late 1970s, a male teacher sent to an elementary school in a mountain village chooses one of two political slogans that his students will have to spell out with rocks on a hillside as part of an assignment. As a result, the class of his female colleague is tasked with the longer slogan... This excellent film, set in a beautiful and remote locale, depicts the dogma and demagoguery that springs from ideology.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Love's a Bitch / Director: Alejandro González Inárritu

1999 / Mexico

In Mexico City, which boasts the largest metropolitan population in the world, a car accident causes the lives and deaths of three groups of people to intersect in odd ways. This astonishing work depicts wild and tragic love stories in a three-part structure, and as the title Love's a Bitch suggests, dogs play an important role in all of its narrative threads. This film was I__rritu's directorial debut, and also won the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Darkness and Light / Director: Chang Tso-chi

1999 / Taiwan

A coming-of-age story that focuses on a summer romance, as experienced by a girl on the verge of adulthood. A 17-year-old university student returns home during her summer holidays to the port city of Keelung of on the outskirts of Taipei. She falls in love with a young man, but his association with a local gang sees him caught up in a turf war... A wistful portrayal of the fragile, brief-lived attraction between these two youths, and pleasant times spent with loving families.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Open Your Eyes / Director: Alejandro Amenábar

1997 / Spain

The charmed life of a wealthy and handsome young man is shattered when his obsessive ex-girlfriend causes an accident that disfigures him. His reality gradually begins to take on a bizarre dimension, and he wanders through a nightmarish world from which he cannot awaken. This film was later remade in the United States under the title Vanilla Sky. Director Amen_bar won a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2005 for The Sea Inside.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Perfect Circle / Director: Ademir Kenović

1997 / Bosnia and Herzegovina=France

In 1992 as the civil conflict worsens in Sarajevo, a lonely poet whose family has fled the country takes in two young brothers who have been orphaned by the war. A strong family-like bond begins to form between them as they live together, and so the poet decides to contact the brothers' aunt who has fled to Germany, and he helps them escape the war-torn nation. The film was made during the actual Siege of Sarajevo. Director Kenovi_ later served on the TIFF competition jury in 1998.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Beyond Silence / Director: Caroline Link

1996 / Germany

Set in the countryside in the south of Germany, this film focuses on the deep bond between deaf parents and their daughter Lara. It skilfully depicts their acceptance of one another for who they are and their paths to independence through the growth of the daughter, who aspires to become a musician. This film was director Link's directorial debut, and in 2003 she won a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for her film Nowhere in Africa.

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Traveller from the South / Director: Parviz Shahbazi

1997 / Iran

A touching story about the friendship between a teenage boy and an elderly woman, set in Teheran. A young man meets an old woman while traveling on a train and helps to find the person who stole her money, then escorts her to the airport. Furthermore, after she suddenly collapses, he springs into action to raise money for her heart operation. With its many episodes that take place during the new year's holidays, it vividly captures the daily lives of the Iranian people.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Kolya / Director: Jan Svérák

1996 / Czech=UK=France

In 1988, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, a middle-aged cellist living in Prague enters into a fake marriage with a Russian woman in exchange for money. However, she ends up defecting to West Germany where her true love resides, leaving her young son behind. Director Sv_r_k co-wrote the screenplay with his father, who also plays the lead role. In 1996, it won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Last Holiday / Director: Amir Karakulov

1996 / Kazakhstan

Set in 1979 when the Republic of Kazakhstan was still part of the Soviet Union, this bittersweet coming-of-age drama unfolds in a time of distrust in a surveillance society under communist rule, when betrayals and incriminations were commonplace among families and friends. Its protagonists are three high school delinquents. The camerawork, capturing their crimes and desperation head-on, creates a palpable tension.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

No Winner

Tokyo Gold Prize- The Governor of Tokyo Award

The White Balloon / Director: Jafar Panahi

1995 / Iran

A young girl loses money for buying a goldfish. As she searches for it, she meets several people and experiences their goodness, indifference, and confusion. This is the feature debut of director Panahi, a former assistant director to Abbas Kiarostami, who wrote the screenplay. It also won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or. Panahi has since received numerous awards at film festivals around the world, but has also been imprisoned and released by Iranian authorities.

Tokyo Gold Prize- The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Usual Suspects / Director: Bryan Singer

1995 / USA

A serious incident occurs on a ship in California. As the police grill the suspects, details emerge regarding the robbery of a money-laden vehicle in New York. This crime mystery gives a detailed account of the illegal schemes of five crooks. Its intricate structure and use of flashbacks contributed to its Academy Award win for Best Original Screenplay. Director Singer went on to kickstart the X-Men film series, which sparked a spate of films featuring comic superheroes.

Grand Prix - The Governor of Kyoto Award/The mayor of Kyoto Award/The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Day the Sun Turned Cold / Director: Yim-Ho

1994 / China=Hong Kong

This film by Ho, one of the central figures of Hong Kong cinema's new wave during the 1980s, was shot on location in northeast China with the assistance of the Changchun Film Studio. Based on real events, it presents a weighty depiction of an incident in which a son reported his mother to the police after she killed his philandering father. The superb cinematography by Hou Yong (The Blue Kite) fully evokes the atmosphere of this bitterly cold region.

Gold Prize - The Governor of Kyoto Award/The Mayor of Kyoto Award/The Governor of Tokyo Award

Letter to an Angel / Director: Garin Nugroho

1993 / Indonesia

A nine-year-old boy living in a village where ancient customs live on believes that his mother has become an angel after her death, and writes letters to her. Then one day, he receives a reply... Featuring powerful, documentary-style camerawork, this film achieved international recognition for Indonesian director Nugroho. He later became a regular guest at TIFF, and also served as a competition juror in 2006.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Blue Kite / Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang

1993 / China

A restrained study of a woman and her marriages to three men, her young son, and the people in their lives, set in Beijing during the 1950s and 1960s. Lu Liping brilliantly plays a woman living through turbulent times as China adopts communism, rapidly leans toward left-wing ideology, and enters the Cultural Revolution. The film was banned in China, which added an unusual frisson to its Grand Prix win. Director Tian's parents were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

For Fun / Director: Ning Ying

1993 / Hong Kong=China

Han retires from his job as a manager at a Peking Opera school, and decides to form a troupe of his own with a bunch of aged men who loiter in a park. Their activities begin to gain recognition for Han, but a minor incident sees him leave the group. Director Ning was also an assistant director on The Last Emperor. This film, a rich evocation of the vitality of the elderly, also won the FIPRESCI at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

White Badge / Director: Chung Ji-young

1992 / Korea

During the Vietnam War, Korea dispatched over 300,000 troops in support of its ally, the United States. Adapted from a novel that won acclaim in Europe and the U.S., this socially conscious drama unflinchingly examines the true meaning of war through two comrades in arms who struggle to deal with their experiences. Star Ahn Sung-ki missed out on winning a prize for his performance at TIFF, but later received the Best Actor Award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival.

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Cows(Vacas) / Director: Julio Medem

1991 / Spain

A tale of the tumultuous destinies of two families spanning three generations over sixty years, from the Third Carlist War in 1875 to the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Set in the culturally and historically unique Basque region of Spain, a dreamlike and grotesque fantasy world unfolds in which the entire drama is witnessed by cows. Director Medem went on to make Lovers of the Arctic Circle, which was highly praised by Stanley Kubrick.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

City of Hope / Director: John Sayles

1991 / USA

An ensemble drama set in fictional Hudson City from John Sayles, the standard bearer of American independent film in the 1980s. It vividly evokes clashes between old and new value systems that threaten the lives of individuals, as portrayed through various aspects of today's society such as race and class discrimination, familial and parental bonds, and male-female relationships. Sayles famously learned his craft under Roger Corman, and is also known as a novelist.

Tokyo Gold Prize - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Delicatessen / Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro

1991 / France

The first feature film collaboration by directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. In a run-down apartment building in a Paris ravaged by nuclear war, a chaotic situation erupts involving the delicatessen on the first floor that is the crazy tenants' only source of food. This richly bizarre work captured the attention of French audiences, and won Cesar Awards for Best Debut and Best Writing.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

That Summer of White Roses / Director: Rajko Grlic

1989 / Yugoslavia=UK

The first English-language film from director Grlic, a leading force in Eastern European cinema since his days working in the former Yugoslavia. Andrija, who lives in a rural village far from the battle lines in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, is asked by a friend to harbor a woman and her son. However, she is a partisan being hunted by the Nazis. It features a multinational cast, and was produced by star George's husband Simon MacCorkindale.

Sakura Gold Award - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Yaaba / Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo

1989 / Burkina Faso=France=Switzerland

Yaaba, meaning “grandmother,” presents an idyllic depiction of a friendship between a kindhearted boy and an old woman in a village in the west African nation of Burkina Faso. Director Ouedraogo studied film at the Institut Des Hautes Etudes Cin_matographiques （IDHEC） in France, and won the Cannes Film Festival's Jury Grand Prize and the FESPACO Grand Prize in 1990 for Tilai. He also served on the TIFF competition jury in 1998.

Tokyo Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Old Well / Director: Wu Tian-ming

1987 / China

With a Chinese title taken from the name of a village deep in Shanxi Province's Taihang Mountains, this film depicts the daily life of an educated man who returns to his waterless village after failure in the city and continues to dig a well. Director Wu Tianming had just been made head of the Xi'an Studio. The lead role is played by Zhang Yimou, who has since made many prominent films as a director, and also presided over the opening and closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics.

Sakura Gold Award - The Governor of Tokyo Award

The Kitchen Toto / Director: Harry Hook

1987 / UK

A tragic portrayal of a young African boy caught between his racial identity and friendships with white people in Kenya in 1950, during the rising movement to gain independence from Britain. Director Harry Hook (who later helmed Lord of the Flies) spent his childhood in the country. Cinematographer Roger Deakins is now an indispensable collaborator on the Coen Brothers' films. Producer Ann Skinner also wrote the screenplay for Oh! What a Lovely War.

Grand Prix - The Governor of Tokyo Award

Typhoon Club / Director: Shinji Somai

1985 / Japan

As a typhoon approaches a provincial city near Tokyo, emotions and confusion run high during four days in the lives of third year junior high students in this depiction of the inherent agony of adolescence. Young genius Somai, director of Sailor Suit and Machine Gun and P.P. Rider, adapted the winning screenplay in a competition held by the film's production company, which he helped found. Cast member Youki Kudoh went on to appear in films by Jim Jarmusch and other foreign directors.