The Tokyo International Film Festival will honor filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mipo O with its Kurosawa Akira Award at the event’s 39th edition next month.
Named for the Japanese master, the award recognizes directors whose work has made an impact on cinema and who are expected to help shape its future. It was revived in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus with support from Capcom. Last year’s recipients were Chloé Zhao and Lee Sang-il.
This year’s honorees were selected by a committee comprising filmmakers Yoji Yamada and Lee Sang-il, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
Rasoulof, one of Iran’s leading dissident directors now living in exile in Europe, won Berlin’s Golden Bear for There Is No Evil (2020), while The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) received a special prize at Cannes before earning an international feature Oscar nomination as Germany’s submission.
The committee singled out the two films for “their humanist perspective, which portrays even those who perpetrate oppression as ordinary citizens.” It also praised Rasoulof’s “unwavering commitment to creative expression despite relentless pressure.”
“Receiving the Kurosawa Award is a great honor for me. His films are profound explorations of the human condition and the moral choices we make in moments of crisis. Kurosawa was a dynamic and inquisitive visual storyteller whose unique perspective on humanity, nature, and the world has made his work an enduring source of inspiration in cinema,” Rasoulof said.
O, a Japanese-born filmmaker of Korean descent, made her feature debut with The Sakais’ Happiness in 2006. Her credits include The Light Shines Only There (2014), Japan’s Oscar submission that year, and Being Good (2015), an ensemble drama exploring child abuse, bullying and the possibility of breaking those cycles through human connection.
After a nine-year break from feature filmmaking, she returned with Living in Two Worlds (2024), a family drama starring Ryo Yoshizawa as the hearing son of deaf parents, whose desire for independence complicates his relationship with his mother. Her latest, How Dare You? (2025), takes a more comic approach to childhood, following three elementary school students whose budding environmental activism — mixed with a classroom crush — leads to unintended consequences.
The selection committee praised her “multifaceted perspective on individuals living on the margins of society” and her avoidance of “a simple lens of good vs. evil,” while highlighting her work with child performers.
“To receive such an extraordinary honor on the 20th anniversary of my directorial debut fills me with immense gratitude and deep humility,” O said. “Winning the Shindo Kaneto Award in 2010 provided me with the vital support to keep making films. Though my progress has been slow, reaching the Kurosawa Akira Award is a stroke of fortune that makes me truly savor what a happy cinematic journey I have had. This recognition is by no means mine alone. My heartfelt thanks go to all the cast and crew members I have met along the way, the audience who stepped into the theaters, and the selection committee—led by director Yamada Yoji—who discovered my films.”
Tokyo will also screen 4K restorations of Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata (1943) and Ikiru (1952), alongside Charles Chaplin’s The Circus (1928) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987).
Separately, the festival named Alice in Borderland actor Hayato Isomura president of its Ethical Film Award jury. Launched in 2023 with Sumitomo Corporation, the prize recognizes films addressing social issues including the environment, poverty and discrimination. Three members of TIFF’s Student PR team will join Isomura on the jury.
The nominees are Brazil’s Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World, the German-Ukrainian feature I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming and Australia’s Time and Tide. The award ceremony and a talk with Isomura are scheduled for Nov. 2.
“Today, we absorb vast amounts of information in seconds through a small screen. I often feel we fall into the trap of believing we understand something instantly, constantly searching for quick answers. Yet, when it comes to deepening our awareness and understanding of social issues, the process of reaching those answers is what truly matters,” Isomura said. “Cinema possesses the unique power to pause our hurried pace, allowing us to experience that very process through the lives and emotions of others. I am committed to taking the thoughts, hopes, and wishes woven into these films by each filmmaker deeply to heart, and to reflecting on them together with everyone.”
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26-Nov. 4, with the TIFFCOM market taking place Oct. 28-30.