36th Jury | 36th Tokyo International Film Festival(2023)

By Gerhard Kassner

Wim Wenders

Filmmaker, writer and photographer

Wim Wenders (born 1945 in Düsseldorf) is considered one of the pioneers of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and one of the most important representatives of contemporary cinema. In addition to multi-award-winning feature films, such as Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987), he has also created several innovative documentaries such as Pina, Buena Vista Social Club, The Salt of the Earth and Pope Francis – A Man of His Word. In 2022, Wenders was awarded the Praemium Imperiale by the Japan Arts Association. In 2023, his feature film Perfect Days won the Best Actor Award for Yakusho Koji at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Wenders is a director, producer, photographer and author; his photographic work has been exhibited in museums around the world, and his output includes numerous photo books, film books and collections of essays.Wim Wenders and his wife Donata Wenders live in Berlin. In 2012, they founded the non-profit Wim Wenders Foundation in Düsseldorf, which brings together Wim Wenders' film, photographic and literary life's work by restoring it and making it permanently accessible to the public. The Wim Wenders Foundation is also committed to promoting young talent in the field of innovative cinematic storytelling through the Wim Wenders Grant.

Message

I’m excited to be back at the Tokyo International Film Festival. I only have the best memories of my first jury presence and the jury members from that time are still in touch, still calling each other “Claudie-san*” and “Paul-san*” and “Wim-san*.” For this festival happening 60 years after the death and therefore 120 years after Ozu’s birthday, my declared master, makes the occasion very special to me.
*Claudie Ossard (Producer) and Paul Auster (Writer)
* “-san” is a Japanese common honorific title.

Albert Serra

Director

Born 1975 in Banyoles, Spain. PhD in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, Barcelona University. In 2006, Serra wrote, directed and produced his debut feature Honour of the Knights, which premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2006. Since then, his films have premiered at prestigious film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno and Toronto. His major filmography includes Birdsong (2008), Lord Worked Wonders in Me (2011), Story of My Death (2013, Golden Leopard winner), La mort de Louis XIV (2016, Prix Jean Vigo winner). He also created the 101-hour The Three Little Pigs for Documenta in 2013. In 2022, he directed Pacifiction, which was premiered in the Competition at Cannes, and screened at the 2022 Tokyo International Film Festival World Focus section. He received the Louis Delluc Prize and other awards for the film. In 2023, he completed Tardes de Soledad, a documentary about two young bullfighters in Spain. He has given lectures at numerous museums, universities and cultural centers, and many retrospectives of his work have been held around the world.

Message

For me it's an honor and a pleasure to be a jury member in a festival with such a great history. It's always a responsibility of course and sometimes it's
not that easy to make these kinds of decisions. But it's also a great opportunity to help, to support passionate filmmakers ready to challenge us with unseen and original images. And of course it's a pleasure to do it here in Tokyo, a wonderful city, and to do it together with colleagues I admire.

Kunizane Mizue

Producer

Mizue Kunizane established the actor and filmmaker management company Dongyu Club in 1976, and worked for many productions by director Imamura Shohei. Her produced films include Autumn Blossoms (1999), Man Walking on Snow (2000, the 53rd Cannes Directors' Fortnight official selection), Strange Circus (2005), Adrift in Tokyo (2007), Then Summer Came (2008), 8,000 Miles 2: Girls Rapper (2010), Guilty of Romance (2011, the 64th Cannes Directors' Fortnight official selection), The Land of Hope (2012), Plan 75 (2022, the 75th Cannes Camera d'Or Special Mention), and Dreaming in Between (2023, the 76th Cannes ACID section official selection). She was also involved in the project of TV Asahi "Jikou Keisatsu".

Message

What? Me as a jury member!? Isn’t it some kind of mistake? Am I qualified?
I still have concerns, but half of me wanted to feel the pleasure of watching films in the theater, so I humbly accepted the big role of jury member.
I have no academic background nor technical skills in cinema. I have been a mere film lover for half a century.
I have met wonderful filmmakers and learned about works from the world I didn’t know, which has enriched my life.
I feel very honored to be given the opportunity to watch films that meet the aesthetic eye of Programming Director Ichiyama, who is a great lover of cinema.

Tran Thi Bich Ngoc

Producer

Tran Thi Bich Ngoc holds Bachelor's in Film Directing from Ha Noi Academy of Cinema & Theatre and Master of Public Policy from Fulbright University. She has worked on internationally acclaimed films like Big Father, Small Father, and Other Stories (official competition at Berlinale IFF, 2015); The Third Wife (Toronto IFF, 2018, nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards 2019); Glorious Ashes (Tokyo IFF, 2022, awarded Montgolfier d’Or at Festival des Three Continents, Nantes 2022). Her expertise as a producer has contributed to the success and recognition of Vietnamese cinema on a global scale.Ngoc is also a co-founder of Autumn Meeting, an international cinema workshop and event that has supported young filmmakers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia since 2013. Her efforts to promote Vietnamese cinema have earned her recognition as one of Forbes Magazine's 50 Most Influential Women in 2019.

Message

It is my honor to have been chosen as a juror for the 36th TIFF. Film festivals have always been a sacred and thrilling place for me to watch new films and to connect with great people. I am grateful to Ichiyama Shozo for giving me this opportunity.
I was raised in the world of cinema from a very young age, accompanying my cinematographer father on film sets throughout Vietnam. I had a rewarding childhood that exposed me to real-life experience and the diverse lives portrayed on screen. In today's rapidly changing world cinema has the power to communicate in ways that no other medium can. I understand that being a jury member carries with it a responsibility to the evolution of this form and I am excited to see the work from around the world which has been carefully selected by our committee. I am eagerly anticipate the exciting experiences that lie ahead.

Zhao Tao

Actress , Producer

Chinese actress and producer. Graduated from the Folk Dance Department of Beijing Dance Academy. She started her acting career in 2000. In 2006, the film Still Life starring Zhao Tao won the Golden Lion Award at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. And in 2012, as the leading actress of the Italian film Io Sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet), she won the David di Donatello Award for the Best Actress. She was a jury member at the 7th International Rome Film Festival and the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival. Other films she has appeared in include A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart and Ash is Purest White. She also produced Useless (by Jia Zhang-ke, 2007) and Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (2020).

Message

It's an honor to be invited to attend the coming 36th TokyoInternational Film Festival.
Over the past 35 years, there have been many Chinese language films starting from TIFF, being seen by the world, and becoming classic works in the film history, such as Old Well (1986) by Wu Tianming, The Blue Kite (1993) by Tian Zhuangzhuang, A Brighter Summer Day (1991) by Edward Yang, Rebels of the Neon God (1992) by Tsai Ming-liang. I've always been attracted by this festival, and I am very happy to have a chance to experience it fully this time.
Japanese writer Oe Kenzaburô once quoted "...and I only am escaped alone to tell thee" from The Book of Job in the Old Testament. Oe-san believes that writers and filmmakers are messengers to deliver the latest circumstances of human beings. I look forward to the selected films of the coming TIFF, to see what they bring forward about our difficulties, confusions and hopes. I look forward to this journey, together with other fellow jurors and audience members, to appreciate these latest works of cinema, to meet a better understanding of the world in the current time.

Markus Nornes

Professor of Asian Cinema / University of Michigan

Markus Nornes teaches at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in Japanese film, documentary and translation theory. He has curated for many festivals, including Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. He published books on Japanese documentary, subtitling, Pink Film, Ogawa Productions, Japanese film theory and calligraphy. Nornes has also directed a number of films, including The Big House (2018) (with Soda Kazuhiro).

Raymond Red

Director

Raymond Red is a pioneer of Filipino independent cinema. He has made many short films, and has mentored many next generation filmmakers. He has won awards for his full length films and has exhibited in many international film festivals, such as Manila Skies (2009, the 22nd TIFF Competition Film). He is distinguished as the first Filipino to win a Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for the short Anino.

Takei Miyuki

President, Film Distribution Company MOVIOLA

Takei founded the film distribution company MOVIOLA in March 2000. The company has distributed films by A sian masters such as Wang Bing, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Yasmin Ahmad, and up-and-coming Chinese directors such as Li Ruijun and Gu Xiaogang. MOVIOLA's upcoming releases in Japan include the Chinese film Journey to the West (this October) and the Hong Kong film A Light Never Goes Out (January 2024), which was selected in the Asian Future setion of the 35th TIFF last year.