TOKYO FILMeX (東京フィルメックス) is an international film festival established in 2000. The film festival was launched by Office Kitano, the agency and production company co-founded by leading actor-filmmaker Takeshi Kitano.[1][2] TOKYO FILMeX especially focuses on new and independent feature films from Asia. A large number of films selected for competition program come from China, Japan, Korea, Iran, etc.

TOKYO FILMeX
LocationTokyo, Japan
Founded2000
LanguageInternational
Websitehttp://filmex.jp/

The festival's main events have been held at Yurakucho, Tokyo in late November annually, consists of the Competition Program, Special screening Program and Filmmakers in focus Program. Alongside the competition program for young emerging Asian filmmakers and other screening programs, stage appearances by actors and symposiums are also planned to discover the masterworks of independent filmmakers from around the world.

In 2018, Office Kitano was restructured after Kitano announced in March that he was quitting to go independent. As representing Kitano brought in a large proportion of Office Kitano's revenue, the company has now scaled back production and is no longer in a position to fund TOKYO FILMeX. Kinoshita Group has stepped in to take over the management role and part-finance the event, which also receives funding from government and sponsorship deals.[3]

Competition Grand Prize Winners

edit
Year Film Director Nationality of Director
(at time of film's release)
2000 Suzhou River Lou Ye   China
2001 Flower Island Song Il-gon   Korea
2002 Blissfully Yours Apichatpong Weerasethakul   Thailand
2003 Incense Ning Hao   China
2004 Tropical Malady Apichatpong Weerasethakul   Thailand
2005 Bashing Masahiro Kobayashi   Japan
2006 To Get to Heaven, First You Have to Die Jamshed Usmonov   Tajikistan
2007 Tehilim Raphaël Nadjari   Israel
2008 Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman   Israel
2009 Breathless Yang Ik-june   Korea
2010 Love Addiction Shinki Uchida   Japan
2011 Old Dog Pema Tseden   China
2012 Epilogue Amir Manor   Israel
2013 In Bloom Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß   Georgia
2014 Cyclo D' Or Francis Pasion   Philippines
2015 Tharlo Pema Tseden   China
2016 Life after life Zhang Hanyi   China
2017 Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts Mouly Surya   Indonesia
The Seen and Unseen Kamila Andini   Indonesia
2018 Ayka Sergei Dvortsevoy   Russia
2019 Ballon Pema Tseden   China
2020 In Between Dying Hilal Baydarov   Azerbaijan
2021 What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? Alexandre Koberidze   Georgia
Anatomy of Time Jakrawal Nilthamrong   Thailand
2022 Autobiography Makbul Mubarak   Indonesia
2023 Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Phạm Thiên Ân   Vietnam

References

edit
  1. ^ "TOKYO FILMeX". filmex.jp. Retrieved Mar 14, 2019.
  2. ^ Filmmaker Magazine
  3. ^ Frater, Patrick (May 9, 2018). "Kinoshita to Rescue Tokyo FILMeX Festival". Retrieved Mar 14, 2019.
edit