Tokyo Film Festival Sets 2023 Lineup Including 20 World Premieres And New Wim Wenders Short

The Tokyo Film Festival has set the lineup for its bumper 2023 edition, running October 23 to November 1. Scroll down for the full list. 

In the main competition, the festival has set 10 world premieres. The features include Japanese filmmaker Kishi Yoshiyuki’s latest pic (Ab)normal Desire and Gu Xiaogang’s Dwelling by the West Lake. Xiaogang is also set to receive the festival’s Kurosawa Akira Award alongside Mouly Surya. 

Of the main competition titles, six are from East Asia, and there is noticeably a feature from Russia, with Alexey German Jr. screening his latest film, Air. Elsewhere, the festival’s Gala section is chock-full of audience favorites from fall festivals. Titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh will screen alongside David Gordon Green’s remake The Exorcist: Believer. The Japanese films set for the Gala section include Kitano Takeshi’s Kubi, Miike Takashi’s Lumberjack the Monster, and Nakagawa Ryutaro’s My (K)Night. 

In the festival’s World Focus section, Wim Wenders is set to debut a new Japan-based short titled Somebody Comes into the Light alongside Strange Way of Life by Pedro Almodovar and Lav Diaz’s no-so-short 3 hours 35-minute feature Essential Truths of the Lake. 

The Tokyo Film Festival will open with Wim Wenders’s Cannes Competition pic Perfect Days. The 36th TIFF opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at TOHO Cinemas Hibiya. TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Yasujirō Ozu throughout its program to mark the filmmaker’s 120th anniversary. 

Main Competition

(Ab)normal Desire — Japan Kishi Yoshiyuki 2023 World Premiere

Air — Russia Alexey German Jr. 2023 World