Tokyo Film Festival 2026: 15 exciting films revealed
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled its Tokyo Film Festival 2026 lineup, with 15 films competing for the Tokyo Grand Prix and the Governor of Tokyo Award, according to Variety. The festival runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 4 in Tokyo and will screen 204 films across its sections, Screen Daily reported. Dutch-born Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer heads the competition jury.
Tokyo Film Festival 2026 competition: World and Asian premieres
Seven competition titles will have world premieres. They include Indonesian director Garin Nugroho’s “Red Before Dawn,” Milcho Manchevski’s North Macedonia-led ensemble “Sister Brother Manhole Cover” and Chinese filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong’s “Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting.”
The other world premieres are Ikeda Akira’s Taiwan-Japan co-production “The Canary’s Lullaby,” Yamamoto Akira’s Japanese drama “The Intertwining,” Wang Jiangyong’s France-Hong Kong co-production “The Night That Binds Us” and Mishima Yukiko’s Japanese film “Two Cigarettes, Three Nights,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The remaining eight competition picks will screen as Asian premieres, several of them arriving from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto. They are Lisandro Alonso’s Chile-Argentina co-production “Double Freedom,” Teodora Ana Mihai’s Belgian drama about the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, “Heysel 85,” Rubaiyat Hossain’s France-Bangladesh co-production “The Difficult Bride,” Samuele Rossi’s Italian film “Even If Hell Came,” Sun Xun’s Singapore title “Magic Atlas,” Sérgio Graciano’s Portuguese drama “Memories of Prison,” Bahman Ghobadi’s Turkey-set “Trees Are Watching” and Jelena Maksimović’s Serbian co-production “Until the Day Ends.”
Tokyo Film Festival 2026 gala: Opening, closing and centerpiece
Zeze Takahisa’s music drama “Sukiyaki,” about the creators of the 1963 song that topped the U.S. Billboard chart, opens the festival, according to the festival. Yeon Sang-ho’s South Korean zombie thriller “Colony” closes it with its Japanese premiere. Yamazaki Takashi’s “Godzilla Minus Zero,” billed as a true sequel to the Oscar-winning “Godzilla Minus One,” screens as the centerpiece ahead of its Nov. 3 release in Japan.
Other Gala selections include Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” Wayne Wang’s “Diary of a Mad Old Man,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved” and Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
Asian Future, Nippon Cinema Now and retrospectives
The Asian Future competition for emerging Asian directors features 10 titles, eight of them world premieres: Navid Mohammadzadeh’s Iranian film “I’m Nothing Special Really,” Ariani Darmawan’s Indonesian title “Jani Be Good,” Cai Ronglin’s “Miracle Summer” from Japan, Kim Hyun-min’s South Korean film “On the Heights,” Tamil Nadu filmmaker Chezhiyan’s Indian entry “The Paper Flower,” Kujiraoka Hironori’s Japanese film “Saravah,” Azamat Shargyn’s Kazakh film “Shyrmauyq” and Soheil Karimi’s Iranian drama “Silver.” Katski Flores’ Filipino title “EDJOP” and Tareq Daoud’s Switzerland-Turkey co-production “Serife Tavsan” will have international premieres.
The restructured Nippon Cinema Now section showcases 10 contemporary Japanese films and now hands out Best Film and Special Jury Prize awards, according to Screen Daily. Its picks include Ueda Shinichiro’s “Earthlings in Love.”
The Classics section presents 4K restorations of Naruse Mikio’s “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs” and “Scattered Clouds,” plus a Nikkatsu Roman Porno 55th anniversary program. A retrospective of 13 films across 12 programs from Japanese master Mizoguchi Kenji marks the 70th anniversary of his death, Variety reported.
The Tokyo Film Festival 2026 program also includes an animation lineup with a Women Directors strand, Women’s Empowerment, Crosscut Asia and Youth programming.
What’s next for the Tokyo Film Festival 2026
Tokyo Film Festival 2026 winners in the competition will be named at the festival’s close. For a look at another major fall festival slate, see our TIFF 50 lineup guide, read about Japan’s Ultraman anniversary film, or browse our movie news.
Reporting from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Daily and the Tokyo International Film Festival contributed to this story.