The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is pleased to announce that the 2023 Kurosawa Akira Award will go to Chinese director Gu Xiaogang and Indonesian director Mouly Surya.
 
The award, which was revived last year after 14 years, honors the renowned auteur’s legacy and ongoing influence. It is presented to filmmakers who have made waves in cinema and are expected to help guide the industry’s future. Last year, acclaimed directors Alejandro González Iñárritu and FUKADA Koji received the award.
 
The 2023 selection committee, consisting of YAMADA Yoji, DAN Fumi, NARAHASHI Yoko, KAWAMOTO Saburo and TIFF Programming Director ICHIYAMA Shozo have chosen Gu Xiaogang and Mouly Surya as this year’s award recipients.
 

 
The selection committee members cited the excellence of Gu Xiaogang’s internationally heralded directorial debut, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, noting that he had depicted a large family with humanistic observation and fluid camerawork, and had shown the world that a new generation of directors is emerging from the Chinese film industry. Said the committee, “We present this award in recognition of his unique talent and in the hope that he will make a substantial contribution to cinema culture in the future.”
 
Gu Xiaogang originally intended to pursue an animation and manga course at university, but ended up majoring in costume design and marketing before becoming interested in filmmaking. He attended lectures for working professionals at Beijing Film Academy and started filming documentaries and shorts before finishing his first feature, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, which was shot over the course of two years. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, where it was selected as the closing film of the Critics’ Week, and also won the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex in 2019.
 
The selection committee members are also bestowing the Kurosawa Akira Award on Mouly Surya, noting that her third feature, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, a powerful portrayal of a woman’s actions with a touch of Western cinema, surprised the world by overturning the conventional image of Indonesian film. They commented, “Her international acclaim has also given hope to many Southeast Asian female filmmakers who are just beginning their careers. We present her with this award in the hope that she will continue to make a significant contribution to cinema culture.”
 
Mouly Surya’s debut feature, Fiction, won four awards including Best Picture at the Festival Film Indonesia 2008, and received widespread critical acclaim. Her second feature, What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love, was presented at TIFF in 2013, and was also the first Indonesian film to be selected for the Sundance Film Festival. In 2017, her third feature, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, premiered at Cannes, and was released in theaters in 14 countries including the US, Canada and Japan. It also won the Grand Prize at Tokyo Filmex, and was selected as Indonesia’s Oscar entry.
 
The Kurosawa Akira Award ceremony will be held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on October 31.
 
Comment from Gu Xiaogang (China)
This honour, awarded to me with the care and trust of the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival, is actually a bit like a stern admonition from Director Kurosawa Akira. It’s like he is saying to me: “Gu Xiaogang, you need to find out what cinema is really all about. I’m asking you this so that you can be qualified to make movies in the future.” I hope I can work on “finding out what cinema is all about” in the years to come. Thank you!
 
Comment from Mouly Surya (Indonesia)
As someone who loves stories, manga, anime and, later in life, cinema — I had never ever dared to dream of having my name be mentioned in the same sentence with Kurosawa Akira. After all, I was just a young girl then. A very different image of someone that you’d imagine leading a film set. Decades later, I get to receive this award, and I think this perception has changed. It is a great honor for me, and I want to thank the members of the selection committee and Tokyo International Film Festival for your contribution to making that change.
 

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Kurosawa Akira’s Favorite Films
With the return of the Kurosawa Akira Award, we will present masterpieces beloved by the world-renowned director.
 
City Lights (Director: Charles Chaplin) 1931/86 min/USA
The Lower Depths (Director: Jean Renoir) 1936/93 min/France
The Quiet Man (Director: John Ford) 1952/129 min/USA
The 400 Blows (Director: Francois Truffaut) 1959/99 min/France
Throne of Blood (Director: Kurosawa Akira) 1957/110 min/Japan