Wim Wenders named 2023 jury president for Tokyo Film Festival
German filmmaker Wim Wenders has been named as the 2023 jury president for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The esteemed director’s most recent feature, Perfect Days, recently premiered at Cannes Film Festival and was praised by many critics as his finest work of fiction in several years.
Perfect Days won the Cannes ‘Best Actor’ award for Koji Yakusho. The legendary Japanese actor portrayed the central protagonist, a middle-aged man living his life on basic terms in Tokyo. The official synopsis reads: “Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveals more of his past.”
Wim Wenders’ career has spanned over five decades, during which he has garnered recognition from the global film community as a true director’s director. At the Venice Film Festival in 1982, he was honoured with the Golden Lion for his film The State of Things. His success continued with the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for Paris, Texas and the ‘Best Director’ award at Cannes in 1987 for Wings of Desire.
Wenders has also made significant contributions to the genre of documentary filmmaking, earning three Oscar nominations in the best documentary feature category for Buena Vista Social Club, Pina, and The Salt of the Earth. This year, Wenders also treated audiences at Cannes to his latest feature documentary, Anselm, a compelling biographic of the renowned German artist Anselm Kiefer.
“I’m excited to be back at the Tokyo International Film Festival,” Wenders said in a new statement. “I only have the best memories of my first jury presence — and the jury members from that time are still in touch, still calling each other ‘Claudie-san ‘and ‘Paul-san ‘and ‘Wim-san.’ For this festival, happening 60 years after the death and therefore 120 years after Ozu’s birthday, my declared master, makes the occasion very special to me.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.