French actress Chiara Mastroianni and acclaimed Hong Kong director Johnny To are among a host of high-profile names joining Tony Leung Chiu-wai on the main jury of this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which is set to run from October 28 to November 6.
The jury includes Hungarian screenwriter and director Ildiko Enyedi and Japanese actor Hashimoto Ai.
The full lineup of films and events at the festival will be announced at a presentation in late September.
The choice of Enyedi, who won the 2017 Berlinale with her film “Of Body and Soul,” cannot be a coincidence. She is directing Leung’s “The Silent Friend,” which marks Leung’s first European film role.
“Jury service is always an extraordinary and intense experience,” Enidy said. “This is not a place for small talk. Jury service is a series of extraordinarily deep and revealing meetings.”
Hashimoto, who previously served as an ambassador for the festival, said she never dreamed of the day she would switch roles to become a jury member. “The responsibility of impacting someone’s life is very scary,” she said. “However, I hope to approach each film with sincerity, engage with it seriously, and fully immerse myself in the cinematic experience.”
Mastroianni is best known for her roles in the 1994 film “Ready to Wear” and the groundbreaking animated film “Persepolis”, and won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role in Christophe Honoré's “On a Magical Night”.
Leung's appointment was announced in May. The star attended the festival last year, where he gave a master class and attended a screening of Wong Kar-wai's classic “2046.” He previously visited the Tokyo festival in 2000, when another Wong film, “In the Mood for Love,” was screened in the festival's Special Screenings section. Leung returned with John Woo's 2008 film, “Red Cliff: Part 1.”
