Manchevski's 'Sister Brother Manhole Cover' Wins Tokyo Grand Prix

Milcho Manchevski's "Sister Brother Manhole Cover" won the Tokyo Grand Prix, worth JPY3 million ($19,000), at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday. The comic allegory follows two siblings, Viktor and Malina, who strip scrap metal — manhole covers and copper busts — from the streets of Skopje, tumbling to the lowest depths of the North Macedonian capital when a pilfered bronze bust of a national hero lands on Viktor's foot. It is Manchevski's first fiction feature since "Kaymak" and a co-production between North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Italy and the U.K.

A full house at Hulic Hall braved a steady drizzle for closing night, a gentler send-off than the downpour that greeted the opening on Oct. 26.

Why did the jury choose it?

Jury president Rolf de Heer said the jury selected the film "for the humanity and compassion shown towards its characters" and for being "a complex, coherent film that manages to be both touching and playful." De Heer's fellow competition jurors were producers Alex Lo and Oh Jungwan, actor Watanabe Makiko and colorist Yov Moor. He noted the 15 competition titles had so little in common they were hard to judge against each other. "It was like programming director [Ichiyama] Shozo was playing a trick on us in his selecting the films, or giving us a test," de Heer said.

Manchevski had already left Tokyo. Producer Jane Kortoshev and leads Sara Klimoska and Filip Trajković accepted the prize from Tokyo Vice Governor Yamashita Satoshi, who stood in for Governor Koike Yuriko. "We came here to Tokyo with a manhole cover, and we are going back to Macedonia with a beautiful award," Kortoshev said. "I'd say it's a pretty good deal, huh?" Manchevski appeared by video message: "This award is a little vindication for a quirky film that almost did not happen. A film about unusual families, and about the haves and have-nots. A film not about messages, but about people."

Who else won?

• Special Jury Prize (JPY500,000, $3,200): Sun Xun's animated "Magic Atlas" from Singapore, made over roughly a decade, moving from ink-wash painting to medieval European engraving. Juror Oh Jungwan cited its "remarkable craftsmanship."
• Best Director: Lisandro Alonso for "Double Freedom," a kind of sequel to his 2001 debut "La Libertad," in which a solitary woodcutter's life unravels when he takes in his sister after her psychiatric facility closes. Juror Alex Lo praised its "minimalist yet efficient cinematic language," which "captures the weight and passage of time with precision."
• Best Actor: Narita Ryo for Mishima Yukiko's "Two Cigarettes, Three Nights," playing a friend who reconnects with a stalled Kyoto illustrator (Matsuoka Mayu) across three nights in three cities.
• Best Actress: Hu Ling for Wang Jiangyong's first feature, "The Night That Binds Us," as a grieving Shanghai dormitory manager. She thanked her alma mater, the Beijing Film Academy.
• Best Artistic Contribution: Jelena Maksimović's "Until the Day Ends," set during Serbia's 2024 protests, dedicated to "the students and citizens of Serbia who have spent the past two years fighting for freedom."

Acting, directing and artistic contribution prizes each carry JPY300,000 ($1,900).

The audience award, carrying no cash, went to Teodora Ana Mihai's "Heysel 85," recreating the 1985 Brussels stadium disaster that killed 39 people before the European Cup final. "There is always a bit of fear that it will not, you know, be received well," Mihai said. "So this is so special."

What happened in the side sections?

Tareq Daoud's Swiss-Turkish "Serife Tavsan" won Asian Future best film and JPY1 million ($6,300), with a special mention for Ariani Darmawan's Indonesian "Jani Be Good." Nippon Cinema Now's best film went to Tanaka Miki's debut "Silver Express" (JPY500,000), with Matsumura Shingo's "Between Us" taking its Special Jury Prize (JPY300,000). Isabelle Stever's "I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming," about a queer Ukrainian couple trapped when Russia invades just after one partner legally changes his gender marker, won the TIFF Ethical Film Award (JPY200,000). Nguyen Vu Hien Chi's "Running Wild in the Sun" won the Asian Students' Film Conference (JPY300,000). The Kurosawa Akira Award, JPY1 million each, went to O Mipo and Mohammad Rasoulof; Academy CEO Bill Kramer received the Global Cinema Leadership Special Award.

The ceremony closed, to the minute, with Yeon Sang-ho's zombie thriller "Colony," whose infected were performed by contemporary dancers rather than CGI; it opens in Japan on Jan. 1. Festival director Hisamatsu Takeo called next year's 40th edition "a milestone that would set the course for the festival's next decade." The festival ran Oct. 26–Nov. 4.