39th Tokyo International Film Festival Lineup Features Lisandro Alonso and Ulrike Ottinger, Kenji Mizoguchi and Youssef Chahine Retrospectives & More

It’s a pleasure to report that, for the third consecutive year, I’ll be attending the Tokyo International Film Festival. Past editions have offered a litany of worthwhile, even galvanizing premieres that rarely make their way towards North America, and the selection for 2026 suggests consistency. Alongside three splashy gala screenings, the 39th TIFF features a Main Competition section comprising Asian premieres of Lisandro Alonso’s Double Freedom and Qiu Jiongjiong’s much-anticipated A New Old Play follow-up starring Lee Kang-sheng, as well as a larger Gala section mixing films that are already available at home stateside (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma) and numerous titles without any sign of a stateside debut.

Echoing sentiments from festival heads around the world, Programming Director Ichiyama Shozo says that titles in this year’s TIFF competition represent “looking back at the past—not out of mere nostalgia, but to use historical events to decode the contemporary psyche and understand our world on a profound level.” To which end there’s greater value in a 13-film Kenji Mizoguchi retrospective and an eight-film selection of Youssef Chahine featured in a World Focus Selection that also contains two older titles from Ulrike Ottinger, whose Isabelle Huppert-led The Blood Countess will also screen.

See the full lineup below and check back for more coverage later this month.

Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing Screenings

Sukiyaki (Japan) dir. Zeze Takahisa
Godzilla Minus Zero (Japan) dir. Takashi Yamazaki
Colony (South Korea) dir. Yeon Sang-ho

Gala Screenings

Behemoth! (USA) – dir. Tony Gilroy
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA) – dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Fjord (Romania/France/Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Finland) – dir. Cristian Mungiu
Wild Horse Nine (USA) – dir. Martin McDonagh
Verity (USA) – dir. Michael Showalter
A Bouquet of Light for You (Japan) – dir. Hiroshi Ando
Arrested Memory (Taiwan/Japan) – dir. Sabu
Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar (Japan) – dir. Kazuya Shiraishi
Sunshine Women’s Choir (Taiwan) – dir. Gavin Lin
Diary of a Mad Old Man (USA) – dir. Wayne Wang
The Beloved (Spain )– dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
All the Lovers in the Night (Japan) – directed by Yukiko Sode
Your Story – Kimi No Hanashi (Japan) – dir. Ryutaro Nakagawa
The Tiger and Her Wings The Movie (Japan) – dir. Yoshiro Nagikawa

Main Competition

The Canary’s Lullaby (Taiwan/Japan) – dir. Akira Ikeda
The Difficult Bride (France/Bangladesh/Portugal/Norway/Germany) – dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
Double Freedom (Chile/Argentina/Luxemburg/Germany/UK) – dir. Lisandro Alonso
Even If Hell Came (Italy) – dir. Samuele Rossi
Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting (Hong Kong/Taiwan/Japan/Saudi Arabia/Qatar) – dir. Qiu Jiongjiong
Heysel 85 (Belgium/The Netherlands/Germany) – dir. Teodora Ana Mihai
The Intertwining (Japan) – dir. Akira Yamamoto
Magic Atlas (Singapore) – dir. Sun Xun
Memories of Prison (Portugal) – dir. Sérgio Graciano
The Night That Binds Us (France/Hong Kong) – dir. Wang Jiangyong
Red Before Dawn (Indonesia) – dir. Garin Nugroho
Sister Brother Manhole Cover (North Macedonia/Bulgaria/Serbia/Albania/Italy/UK) – dir. Milcho Manchevski
Trees Are Watching (Türkiye)– dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Two Cigarettes, Three Nights (Japan) – dir. Yukiko Mishima
Until the Day Ends (Serbia/Bulgaria/Slovenia/Montenegro/Croatia/Germany) – dir. Jelena Maksimović

Kenji Mizoguchi Retrospective

Osaka Elegy (1936)
Sisters of Gion (1936)
The 47 Ronin (Part One, Part Two, 1941–42)
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
YANG KWEI FEI (1955)
New Tales of the Taira Clan (1955)
Street of Shame (1956)
Gion Bayashi (1953)
Ugetsu (1953)
The Water Magician (1933)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)

Animation Selection

Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World (Brazil) – dir. Brenda Lígia, Edu Felistoque
Cherry And Virgin (Japan) – dir. Kawajiri Masanao
Forgotten Island (USA) – dir. Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado
Ghost – End of Night (Japan) – dir. Natsume Shingo
Grotesqqque (Japan) – dir. Nishigori Atsushi
Iron Boy (France/Belgium) – dir. Louis Clichy
Son of a Bitch (Brazil) – dir. Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Tania Anaya, Sávio Leite
Walking with Animators (France) – dir. Alexandre Poncet, Gilles Penso
We Are Aliens (Japan) – dir. Kadowaki Kohei
Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire (Japan) – dir. Nagaoka Chika
Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom (Japan) – dir. Watanabe Kotono
The Rose of Versailles (Japan) – dir. Yoshimura Ai

Asian Future Selection

EDJOP (The Philippines) – dir. Katski Flores
I’m Nothing Special Really (Iran) – dir. Navid Mohammadzadeh
Jani Be Good (Indonesia) – dir. Ariani Darmawan
Miracle Summer (Japan) – dir. Cai Ronglin
On the Heights (Korea) – dir. Kim Hyun-min
The Paper Flower (India) – dir. Chezhiyan
Saravah (Japan) – dir. Kujiraoka Hironori
Serife Tavsan (Switzerland/Turkey) – dir. Tareq Daoud
Shyrmauyq (Kazakhstan) – dir. Azamat Shargyn
Silver (Iran) – dir. Soheil Karimi

Nippon Cinema Now Selection

Between Us (Japan) – dir. Matsumura Shingo
Okinawa Saudade (Japan) – dir. Matsubayashi Yoju
Kefi (Japan) – dir. Saito Kisin
Earthlings in Love (Japan) – dir. Ueda Shinichiro
silver express (Japan) – dir. Tanaka Miki
Hinotama: Ball of Fire (Japan) – dir. Yaza Takenoshin
Plastic Love! (Japan/Austria) – dir. Sybilla Patrizia, Clementine Nuttall
Chihiro | Akemi (Japan) – dir. Natori Satoshi
Yamazaki Riverside: Over an Actor’s Shoulder (Japan) – dir. Inudo Isshin

Women’s Empowerment Selection

Far from the Trees (Spain/Peru/Italy) – dir. Meritxell Colell Aparicio
A Girl Unknown (China/France) – dir. Zou Jing
I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (Germany/Ukraine) – dir. Isabelle Stever
Lovers in the Blue Night (India/USA) – dir. Anuparna Roy
The Meltdown (Chile/USA/Spain/Mexico) – dir. Manuela Martelli
Super Lucky Girl (Japan) – dir. Yang Kaijing
Truly Naked (The Netherlands/Belgium/France) – dir. Muriel d’Ansembourg

CROSSCUT ASIA+ Selection

Four Seasons in Java (Indonesia/France/The Netherlands/Norway/Saudi Arabia/Singapore/Poland) – dir. Kamila Andini
Filipiñana (Singapore/UK/The Philippines/France/The Netherlands) – dir. Rafael Manuel
Becoming Human (Cambodia) – dir. Ly Polen
Small Hours of the Night (Singapore) – dir. Daniel Hui
Behind the Flickering Light: The Archive (Indonesia) – dir. Hafiz Rancajale
Turang (Indonesia) – dir. Bachtiar Siagian

World Focus Selection

The Dreamed Adventure (Germany/France/Bulgaria/Austria, 2026) – dir. Valeska Grisebach
Hearing (Vietnam/Singapore, 2026) – dir. Lê Bảo
Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors (The Philippines, 2026) – dir. Lav Diaz
The Masque of the Red Death (USA/UK, 1964) – dir. Roger Corman
My Wife Cries (Germany/France, 2026) – dir. Angela Schanelec
The Road to Jericho (France/UK, 2026) – dir. Amos Gitai
Sleep No More (Indonesia/Singapore/Japan/Germany/France, 2026) – dir. Edwin
DAU (Germany/France/Sweden, 2026) – dir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Flies (Mexico, 2026) – dir. Fernand Eimbcke
La Bola Negra (Spain, 2026) – dir. Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi
The Match (Argentina/Spain, 2026) – dir. Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco
Sixteen Moments of My Life (France/Spain, 2026) – dir. Albert Serra
Saccharine (Australia, 2025) – dir. Natalie Erika James
Time and Tide (Australia, 2026) – dir. Vee Shi
The Survival of Kindness (Australia, 2022) – dir. Rolf de Heer
The Blood Countess (Austria/Luxembourg/Germany, 2026) – dir. Ulrike Ottinger
Under Snow (Germany, 2011) – dir. Ulrike Ottinger
Ticket of No Return (West Germany, 1979) – dir. Ulrike Ottinger
A Dance with Rainbows (Taiwan, 2025) – dir. Lee Yi-shan
The Grandmaster’s Gift (Taiwan, 2026) – dir. Chen Yi-jung
Happily Ever After (Taiwan, 2026) – dir. Feng-i Fiona Roan
To Be Ordinary (Taiwan, 2026) – dir. Lee Yun-chan
Good Neighbors (Restoration) (Taiwan, 1962／2026) – dir. Lee Hsing
Return of the Prodigal Son (Egypt/Algeria, 1976) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Alexandria Why (Egypt/Algeria, 1978) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Adieu Bonaparte (Egypt/France, 1984) – dir. Youssef Chahine
An Egyptian Story (Egypt, 1982) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Cairo Station (Egypt, 1958) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Cairo, As Told by Chahine (Egypt, 1991) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Alexandria Again And Forever (Egypt, 1989) – dir. Youssef Chahine
Destiny (Egypt/France, 1997) – dir. Youssef Chahine