The full lineup of films for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival was announced yesterday at an event held in Roppongi Hills.
It had been previously announced that the Tom Hanks vehicle Captain Phillips will open the festival on October 17 and The Kiyosu Conference, starring Kenichi Matsuyama of Gantz and Norwegian Wood fame, will play out the festival on the 22nd.
A wide selection of films will play at the festival, from a range of genres and from many different countries, with the Japanese Cinema Splash and Asian Future sections highlighting films from here and the rest of Asia, and World Focus representing films that have been successful at recent international film festivals. Perhaps the most important category is the Competition section which will showcase films completed this year, many of them world or Asian premieres. Directors Koji Fukada and Hideo Sakaki, whose films Au revoir l’ ete and Disregarded People will appear in this section, were present at the event to lend their support.
The festival gives fans the opportunity to catch some major films before their general release in Japan. Last year saw Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers get an early screening before it went on to huge commercial success here and abroad. Some highlights of this year’s festival include Sofia Coppola’s latest The Bling Ring, and Steven Soderburgh’s Behind the Candlebra, which stars Michael Douglas as the outrageously flamboyant pianist Liberace.
The full lineup can be seen at the official website: http://tiff.yahoo.co.jp/2013/en/
By: Christopher O’Keeffe
Image: Tokyo International Film Festival
