35th Jury | 35th Tokyo International Film Festival(2022)

©Marco Grob

Julie Taymor

Director of theater, opera, and film

In 1974 Taymor received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in "Visual Theater" to travel to Eastern Europe, Japan, and Indonesia where, during her four years in Asia, she developed a mask/dance company, Teatr Loh. The company toured throughout Indonesia with two original productions, "Way of Snow" and "Tirai", which were subsequently performed in the United States. Taymor's first opera direction was of Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" for the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Matsumoto, Japan, under the baton of Ozawa Seiji in 1992. The opera featured Philip Langridge as Oedipus and Jessye Norman as Jocasta. Taymor went on to direct the film adaptation of the opera Oedipus Rex, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Award at the Montreal Festival of Film on Art. Broadcast internationally in 1993, the film garnered an Emmy Award and the 1994 International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production. Other films include The Glorias with Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander, Titus starring Anthony Hopkins, the Academy-Award winning Frida starring Salma Hayek, Across the Universe (Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations), The Tempest starring Helen Mirren, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.Theater includes: "The Lion King", which has played for 25 years, in over 100 cities in 20 countries on every continent except Antarctica and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any entertainment title in box office history, for which she won two Tony Awards. The Japanese production of "The Lion King" made its premiere in 1998. Following the original production on Broadway, it was the first international production of this title, and opened at the Shiki Theatre HARU. Since then, the show has enjoyed long and successful runs in Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya and Sapporo. "The Lion King" passed the milestone of a cumulative total of 13,000 performances in Japan. The show continues to set unprecedented records even today. Other theater includes "M Butterfly" starring Clive Owen, "Grounded" starring Anne Hathaway, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", "The Green Bird", and "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass", which earned five Tony Award nominations including one for her direction. Operas include "The Magic Flute" (Metropolitan Opera and The Maggio Musicale in Italy). Recipient of the MacArthur ،Genius' Fellowship.

Message

The arts are the beacon that brings us out of the chaos , leading the way. In a darkened theater the images flickering before us draw us both deeply into and also out of ourselves, our isolated and single selves. Hold onto the film theaters, the palaces that bring us together to cross the boundaries of what we don't know at all, what we think we know and what we have personally experienced. Become the lives and loves of others and let them inspire and torment you. It is a thrilling honor to come to Japan to preside over the International Competition Jury for the 35th TIFF.

Shim Eun-kyung

Actor

Born on May 31, 1994 in Seoul, Korea. Debuted at age nine. Shim starred in smash hit films Sunny (2011) and Miss Granny (2014), both of which had Japanese remakes. In Japan, she received the 34th Takasaki Film Festival Best Actress Award with Blue Hour (2019) as well as the 43rd Japan Academy Prize Best Actress Award, the 74th Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress and the 11th TAMA Film Award Best New Actress at the 29th TAMA CINEMA FORUM. In recent years, she played her first leading role in a Japanese TV drama with NHK production “Indigo Area” (2021) and appeared in A Garden of Camellias (2021) and Seven Secretaries The Movie (2022).

Message

I am truly honored to be a member of the jury for the 35th Tokyo International Film Festival.
Being selected reminded me once again that film is something that connects us all.
I was awakened and fascinated by the boundless world of cinema when I was in junior high school, and I felt its power to keep me going forever. I was thrilled every time I watched a film.
I will carefully fulfill my responsibility, and I will feel more than happy if I can share the excitement with everyone at the festival. Film festivals are an opportunity to meet excellent films from various countries, so I hope you will join us with curiosity.

©Diego Sanchez

João Pedro Rodrigues

Director

João Pedro Rodrigues is an internationally renowned Portuguese filmmaker. When he was eight years old, his father gave him a pair of binoculars and he decided to become an ornithologist. He always travels with his binoculars, to foray into nature and watch birds.
His work explores gender and human desire in all its guises — and disguises — reflecting the multifarious history of film, from classical genre to documentary and experimental film. His films have premiered and won prizes at the world's foremost film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Toronto and Berlin. In 2016, the Pompidou Centre in Paris honored Rodrigues and his partner, João Rui Guerra da Mata, with a complete retrospective and installation exhibition.

Message

I met TIFF’s new programming director, Ichiyama Shozo-san, when we were jury colleagues at the Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Vladivostok in 2017. Would we have met there now, with what is tragically happening in the world nowadays?
I have been lucky to return several times to Japan since my first trip there in 1999, together with my partner João Rui Guerra da Mata, just before I shot my first feature, O Fantasma.
I feel honored with this new invitation and I’m very much looking forward to discovering the films selected this year.

Yanagijima Katsumi

Director of Photography

Joined Mifune Productions in 1972. Debuted as a cinematographer with CF Girl (1997, Hashimoto Izo).
Yanagijima worked on Boiling Point (1990, Kitano Takeshi), and has worked on 16 Kitano films up to now. His cinematography credits have reached over 70 films, including Sora ga konnani aoi wake ga nai (1993, Emoto Akira), Battle Royale (2000, Fukasaku Kinji), Go (2001, Yukisada Isao), Dear Doctor (2009, Nishikawa Miwa), Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami), Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow (2016, Mori Yoshitaka) and Ito (2022, Yokohama Satoko). He has won Japan Academy Film Prizes in 2002 and 2004, Yokohama Film Festival Best Cinematographer in 1996 and 2009, and others.

Message

Film festivals are a place where carefully selected films with the involvement of many parties from a large number of entries are screened. Then, in the competition section, the jury has to face the daunting and difficult task of selecting award winners.
I have served as a juror several times in the past, and I always wondered with regret, "Why did I accept this offer?"
On the other hand, I can also experience the pleasure of meeting various jurors, of debating about the films, and of supporting and appreciating new talent and films that have an emotional impact on me.
I look forward to encountering the power of cinematic expression.

Marie-Christine de Navacelle

A Former Director of Institut Français

Marie-Christine de Navacelle has served as national chief curator, in charge of many cultural institutions in France and abroad. From 1976-1988 she was a curator at the Pompidou Center in Paris where she created "Cinema du Reel" a documentary film festival. From 1988-1995 she oversaw the film department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was appointed a board member of the French Cinematheque, the Cannes Film Festival and Unifrance film. She was director of the French Institute in Tokyo and Yokohama from 1996-2002, then in 2002-2003 she was the director of the French cultural centers in Cambodia. From 2003-2005 she was in charge of films at the French National library in Paris. She has published several books on films including "Frederic Wiseman" and "Tu n'as rien vu à Hiroshima" with unpublished photographs of Emmanuelle Riva.

Message

Today despite most people watching films at home and on demand through different platforms like Netflix, Disney and so on, festivals remain one of the best places to attend quality screenings in cinemas, to discover new and older films, to meet and share with filmmakers but also producers, film critics and even simple film lovers. All this in a pleasant atmosphere...
To attend a film festival is a privilege, but to be a member of a jury is a chance for a deeper exchange. Making the selection of the films is a huge responsibility and for understanding Ichiyama Shozo's love for cinema and his demanding judgement, I am extremely curious and happy to have the opportunity to see the films he selected.
Cinema can be a passion and I remember the young people standing in line for hours outside the Bunkamura in Tokyo to attend the first screening in Japan of Lancelot du lac by Robert Bresson. It was a complete Bresson retrospective which I did with the help of Ichiyama Shozo, Hasumi Shigehiko and Tomita Mikiko and screenings were planned in the Cinema Prism section of TIFF and the French Institute in Tokyo. Robert Bresson, who was still alive, told me how happy he was that all his films could be seen in Japan.

Saito Ayako

Professor, Meiji Gakuin University / President, Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences

Saito Ayako is a professor in the Department of Art Studies,
Faculty of Letters, at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in film studies, psychoanalytic feminist theory, and gender criticism. She has written about Hitchcock, Fassbinder, actress Wakao Ayako, Tanaka Kinuyo and other women directors' works, and gender representations in postwar Japanese cinema, to name a few.

Soros Sukhum

Producer

Soros Sukhum is regarded as the most important independent producer working in Thailand. He currently supports a generation of Thai filmmakers.
Soros is a first Thai producer who received a national Silapathorn Artist Award for Film and Video from Ministry Culture of Thailand. In 2020 he received a FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific Region. He co-produced Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the anthology Ten Years Thailand showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nishizawa Akihiro

General Manager, TOKYO THEATRES Co, Inc.

Nishizawa Akihiro joined TOKYO THEATRES Co, Inc. in 1992, working at Ginza Theatres Cinema, Cine Vivant Roppongi, Cine Saison Shibuya, etc. Currently, he is in charge of programming for TOKYO THEATRES' cinemas, including Theatres Shinjuku, Humantrust Cinema Yurakucho, and Humantrust Cinema Shibuya. Since 2012, he has been organizing "Movies in the Unexperienced Zone", a film festival featuring films that have not yet been released in Japan.

Members of the International Competition Jury

President of Jury

Jury Members

Members of the Asian Future Jury