Tokyo Fest Unveils Lineup: Fan Bingbing, Tadanobu Asano, Rithy Panh and Palestine Epic Among Competition Highlights

Tokyo Fest Unveils Lineup: Fan Bingbing, Tadanobu Asano, Rithy Panh and Palestine Epic Among Competition Highlights

The Tokyo International Film Festival unveiled the lineup on Wednesday for its 38th edition, running October 27 to November 5, and the main competition promises a typically eclectic mix of Asian auteurs, international arthouse stalwarts and new discoveries.

Malaysian-Chinese filmmaker Chong Keat Aun’s Mother Bhumi, starring Fan Bingbing in a reinvention of her screen persona, will compete alongside Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s psychological thriller Morte Cucina, shot by Christopher Doyle and featuring Japanese star Tadanobu Asano. Chinese director Zhang Lu, fresh from winning the Busan International Film Festival’s Best Picture Award for Gloaming In Luomu, is premiering Mothertongue, starring Bai Baihe as an actress who returns home to her native Sichuan Province. Hungarian iconoclast György Pálfi brings Hen, an allegorical fable about a runaway chicken that exposes layers of human absurdity, while veteran Cambodian documentarian Rithy Panh returns with We Are the Fruits of the Forest, a four-year chronicle of ethnic minorities preserving traditional life in Cambodia’s northern mountains. Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir premieres Palestine 36, a sweeping colonial-era drama set in 1936 starring Hiam Abbass. The U.S., meanwhile, is represented by model-turned-filmmaker Hailey Gates’ satirical debut Atropia, produced by Luca Guadagnino and headlined by Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner and Chloë Sevigny.

The festival opens with Climbing for Life, Junji Sakamoto’s sweeping dramatization of the life of mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mt. Everest, while 94-year-old directorial legend Yoji Yamada returns with Tokyo Taxi, a gentle Tokyo-set drama starring Chieko Baisho and Takuya Kimura. Closing night will showcase Chloé Zhao’s buzzy Shakespeare-inspired Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

Beyond the competition, TIFF has programmed a range of titles to appeal to international cinephiles. HIKARI’s Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, plays in Gala Selection, while Ari Aster’s satire Eddington, toplined by Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, will make its belated local debut. Japan will be represented with world premieres such as Yuichiro Sakashita’s Blonde in competition, while Nippon Cinema Now and other sections showcase the latest from homegrown talent.

The big news for film buffs: a centerpiece retrospective will mark the centennial of Yukio Mishima, including the long-delayed Japanese screening of Paul Schrader’s cult classic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, a film long blocked from local screens by threats from right-wing activists.

The festival’s animation and documentary programming is again characteristically strong. Mamoru Oshii’s cult anime Angel’s Egg returns in a 40th anniversary 4K restoration, and Shoji Kawamori unveils his new original feature Labyrinth. On the nonfiction side, The Ozu Diaries offers an intimate archival portrait of ur-auteur Yasujiro Ozu, while Juliette Binoche makes her directorial debut with In-I in Motion, a chronicle of her stage collaboration with choreographer Akram Khan.

As usual, TIFF will be accompanied by TIFFCOM, Japan’s largest content market, running Oct. 29–31 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center. Alongside project markets, pitch contests and networking, the market will feature a Soi Cheang masterclass following his Hong Kong blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, and a high-profile conversation between Yoji Yamada and Lee Sang-il, recipient of one of this year’s honorary Kurosawa Akira Awards (a second Kurosawa award will be presented to Chloé Zhao).

The competition jury will be led by festival veteran Carlo Chatrian, with support from Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-Mei, French editor Matthieu Laclau, Japanese actor/director Saitoh Takumi, and Chinese filmmaker Vivian Qu. Together, they will decide the Tokyo Grand Prix and other top honors to be announced at the festival’s closing ceremony on Nov. 5.

Full 2025Competition Lineup
Atropia — dir. Hailey Gates (USA)
Blonde — dir. Yuichiro Sakashita (Japan)
Echoes of Motherhood — dir. Nakagawa Ryutaro (Japan)
Golem in Pompei — dir. Amos Gitai (France)
Heads or Tails? — dir. Alessio Rigo de Righi & Matteo Zoppis (Italy/USA)
Hen — dir. György Pálfi (Greece/Germany/Hungary)
Maria Vitoria — dir. Mário Patrocínio (Portugal)
Morte Cucina — dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Thailand)
Mother Bhumi — dir. Chong Keat Aun (Malaysia)
Mothertongue — dir. Zhang Lu (China)
Mother — dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska (Belgium/North Macedonia)
Palestine 36 — dir. Annemarie Jacir (Palestine/UK/France/Denmark)
Sermon to the Void — dir. Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan/Mexico/Turkey)
Take Off — dir. Pengfei (China)
We Are the Fruits of the Forest — dir. Rithy Panh (Cambodia/France)
The Greatest Funeral Hits — dir. Ziya Demirel (Turkey)
Halo — dir. Roh Young-wan (Korea)
Linka Linka — dir. Kangdrun (China/Tibet)
Kiiroiko — dir. Imai Mika (Japan/Taiwan)