Tokyo International Film Festival’s Animation Lineup Aims To Bring Creators And Audiences Together

The Tokyo International Film Festival is looking beyond Japan’s domestic animation hits with this year’s Animation Selection, bringing together films and filmmakers from around the world. Alongside acclaimed international titles and premieres of new Japanese works, the program includes discussions about the medium’s present and future.

That’s the goal of Ryota Fujitsu, programming advisor for the festival’s animation section. With Japan already hosting animation festivals in Niigata, Aichi, and Hiroshima, Fujitsu wants Tokyo’s program to broaden audiences’ perceptions of what animation can offer. Although Japan’s animation industry is among the world’s largest, with revenue reaching almost ¥4 trillion ($25.6 billion) in 2024, Fujitsu says Japanese audiences tend to watch domestic animated films and television rather than work from other countries.

By introducing films acclaimed at international events such as Annecy, the festival hopes to encourage Japanese audiences to explore further. This year’s selection includes the Japanese premieres of Iron Boy and DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island, alongside Érica Maradona’s Son of a Bitch, a coming-of-age story told with a limited color palette. Alexandre Poncet’s documentary Walking with Animators explores animators’ creative processes and what their work means to them, a subject with particular resonance amid debates over AI.

A festival screening can help build a film’s profile in Japan. Robot Dreams, which screened at Tokyo in 2023, became a long-running theatrical hit in the country following its 2024 Oscar nomination. Titles including Iron Boy and Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World will be hoping for similar success after this year’s festival.

“We try to be mindful of choosing works that aren’t necessarily what everyone considers the standard of animation,” explains Fujitsu. “We want films that expand what people see as interesting animation, as well. But we don’t want to force something into the festival just to be different, even if it isn’t interesting. So I try to include works that I feel truly have appeal, and that I feel I can explain this appeal in my own words.

“To put it another way, even if it isn’t a commercial hit, festivals offer the chance to see the many unique and challenging films that exist around the world. Foreign feature-length animated films, precisely because the industry in their own countries is small, are often more daring creatively. From a Japanese perspective, it’s a bit like trying foreign food. Trying foreign food you’ve never had before is an interesting experience, so I chose to approach the selection for the festival like that. I hope that by pairing more unconventional Japanese films with international animation we can find a connection.”

The festival is also becoming a launchpad for original Japanese animated features. Despite the industry’s growth, films not based on existing IP have struggled to compete with established franchises at the box office. Three upcoming Japanese features — Ghost – End of Night, Grotesqqque, and Cherry and Virgin — will screen at this year’s event, offering them an opportunity to build an audience ahead of release.

“Japanese animation often gets finished at the very last minute, so it’s previously been quite difficult to screen it as a premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival,” Fujitsu explains. “However, [the inclusion of films like Grotesqqque and Ghost] reflects a shift in Japanese animation. In recent years, there’s been a trend of developing those kinds of original projects a bit earlier and submitting them to film festivals.”

Beyond screenings, the festival seeks to bring filmmakers together to discuss the industry. As Fujitsu puts it, the aim is to create “opportunities for foreign and Japanese directors to talk” about animation and its ability to connect people across cultures.

One of three symposiums at this year’s festival, The Thrill of Being an Animator, will bring Poncet into conversation with Shingo Natsume and Atsushi Nishigori, whose work is represented in Ghost – End of Night and Grotesqqque, respectively.

The festival will also screen three recent Japanese animated features directed by women, with their directors participating in a symposium about opportunities for women to move into directing. Women currently account for fewer than 5% of feature animation directors both in Japan and internationally.

Participants include Chika Nagaoka, whose 2019 film Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire was the franchise’s first feature directed by a woman; Kotono Watanabe, director of 2023’s Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom; and Ai Yoshimura, who directed last year’s musical adaptation of the landmark shojo manga The Rose of Versailles.

“I’ve wanted to host a symposium with female directors for a long time,” Fujitsu says of the event, titled Women Directors: Diverse Visions. “Over the past 20 years, the number of women in the Japanese animation industry has increased significantly, and now women are working in all sorts of roles all across the industry. Since becoming a director is often the final step in an animator’s career, it’s taken time for the number of female directors to increase even as the number of female animators has grown, and I think as a result we’re in the middle of a transitional period. I wanted to introduce these three female directors as a clear example of the fact that there are female animators out there today, in all sorts of roles.”

Through its mix of original Japanese features, international animation, and discussions among filmmakers, the festival hopes to encourage audiences to seek out unfamiliar work and give creators opportunities to connect.

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs October 26–November 4.