As the biggest festival in one of the world’s biggest film markets, Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF, Oct 28 – Nov 6) has always been held under the glare of painfully high expectations.
But taking place towards the end of Asia’s crowded autumn festival season, then struggling through the brutal years of the pandemic, it hasn’t been easy for the event to create a global footprint.
Ando Hiroyasu, who came on board as Chairman in 2019, was determined to change all that and started to restructure the festival during the pandemic.
In 2021, Shozo Ichiyama, a veteran producer (Caught By The Tides) and former Tokyo Filmex director, joined TIFF as Programming Director and helped to reorganize and streamline the programme.
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