5 Must-See Films at the 2024 Tokyo International Film Festival
A sprawling and shrewdly curated institution that has struggled to gain the foothold it deserves on the euro-centric festival circuit, the Tokyo International Film Festival — AKA the other TIFF — has long been something that IndieWire has wanted sufficient reason to cover.
Similar to the New York Film Festival in some ways, one of TIFF’s predominant functions has been to bring the best of world cinema to its hometown audience, a function that it’s fulfilling better than ever before with a 2024 slate that’s highlighted by the Japanese premieres of films like Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” and Audrey’s Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” (who knows, maybe it’ll receive a better reception in Asia than it did it in Europe).
More from IndieWire
Since we’ve already covered such films by the time they screen in Ginza or Yurakucho, our interest has been more focused on the festival’s International Competition and Asian Future sections, which offer a raft of compelling premieres from Japan and around the world. Few of those titles have received significant American distribution in recent years, but that likely says as much about the international film business — and the media outlets that cover it — as it does about the films themselves.
At a time when some festivals feel paralyzed by their place in the annual pipeline, and others are all too desperate for any identity to call their own, TIFF has quietly assembled a series of diverse and exciting film slates that reward curiosity while defying expectation. From studio-level Japanese romances like “She Taught Me Serendipity” to micro-budget indies like “Teki Cometh,” from Colombian Westerns like “Adios Amigo” to Slovakian coming-of-age dramas like “Promise, I’ll Be Fine,” TIFF 2024 epitomizes why this festival deserves to be celebrated for what it brings to the world, and not just what it collects from it.
TIFF 2024 will run from Monday, October 28 thru Wednesday, November 6. IndieWire will be publishing at least three full reviews from the festival, but we’re kicking things off with a broader look at five must-see movies we recommend to anyone who will be there.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
