11th Tokyo International Film FestivalOctober31-November8,1998

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.