Oscar Entries From Thailand and Nepal Lead Tokyo Filmex Competition

Thailand's Oscar submission "9 Temples to Heaven" and Nepal's entry "Elephants in the Fog" will compete against eight other titles at the 27th Tokyo Filmex, running Nov. 20-29 in Tokyo's Yurakucho district. The Grand Prize carries JPY700,000 ($4,500) for the winning director, with a Special Jury Prize of JPY300,000 ($1,900); both will be handed out Nov. 29.

Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in every feature by auteur Tsai Ming-liang since "Rebels of the Neon God" in 1992, joins the three-member international jury. The remaining jurors will be named later. The competition is open to emerging Asian directors with films finished in 2025 or 2026, and four of this year's selections are first features.

What's in the competition line-up?

Sompot Chidgasornpongse, a former assistant director to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, makes his narrative debut with "9 Temples to Heaven." The deadpan family comedy follows a 63-year-old man who drags nine relatives on a one-day tour of nine temples after a fortune teller warns that his mother will soon die — and the mother won't get out of the car. It launched in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight and took best director and best actor at Shanghai.

Abinash Bikram Shah's "Elephants in the Fog" won the Jury Prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard strand, the first Nepali film in the festival's official selection. It centers on Pilati, head of a kinnar (third-gender) community hemmed in by elephant forest, who takes over the hunt for a missing girl when police won't help.

Venice supplies four titles:

• Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's Horizons entry "The Burning Giants," about a policeman doubting an operation that closes off a forest and displaces its Indigenous Karen residents.
• Michelle Zhou's debut "Big Little Things," also from Horizons, in which a woman brings a hired fake boyfriend home to Harbin to keep her girlfriend secret. It won Venice's Premio Autrici Under 40 and has four Golden Horse nominations.
• Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari's "A Bit of Light," from Venice's main competition, tracking a Tehran doctor who loses his license for treating injured protesters.
• Amie Song's debut "Gu Shi," made through Venice's Biennale College Cinema with Anocha Suwichakornpong as executive producer, wrapping politics in a fairy tale.

From Toronto come Korean director Yoon Dan-bi's "The World Before," with a special mention in San Sebastian's New Directors section, and Filipino filmmaker John Torres' first narrative feature "The Remotes," a neo-noir linking fatal road crashes to a driver-retraining voice app. Singaporean Priscilla Ang's debut "Ah Girl," set in 1994 and framed in 4:3, won Rotterdam's Youth Jury Award and has three Golden Horse nominations. Japan's Sugita Kyoshi rounds out with "A Song From Beyond," his fifth feature.

What frames the festival?

Novelist Maha Harada's directing debut "In My Father's Room" opens the festival. Adapted from her own short story, it stars Yu Aoi as a museum guard who receives a key from her estranged father (Issey Ogata) a month after his death. It won the Fipresci Prize and the Ateneo Guipuzcoano Award at San Sebastian.

Anthony Chen's "We Are All Strangers" closes the event. The film completes his "Growing Up" trilogy after "Ilo Ilo" and "Wet Season," was the first Singaporean film in the Berlinale's main competition and is Singapore's Oscar submission.

The 12-film Special Screenings section includes Hong Sang-soo's 34th feature, the black-and-white "The Day She Returns" from Berlin's Panorama; Kogonada's Hong Kong-set "Zi," dedicated to the late composer Sakamoto Ryuichi; and Ann Hui's 1981 thriller "The Story of Woo Viet," starring a 25-year-old Chow Yun-fat, in an M+ 4K restoration.

Documentaries feature too. Poh Si Teng's "American Doctor," about three U.S. volunteer physicians who treated the wounded in Gaza, took the Hot Docs Audience Award. Irie Yu's "The Day He Retires" world premieres, following Takeishi Kenji, who left his job at 50 to open Fukaya Cinema in Saitama and now hands it over at 76.

Lee Kang-sheng also appears on screen in a double bill of Tsai's two newest "Walker" films — the series, running since 2012, has him moving through world cities at a glacial crawl as Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang. "Dust," the 11th chapter, premiered at Venice; "Night Journey," the 12th, is a Golden Horse nominee. Jia Zhangke's "Torino Shadow" headlines a shorts program alongside Locarno winners, and the Made in Japan sidebar adds three titles, including Xavier Tera's "The Color of the Sun," shot on 35mm by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

Screenings run at Yurakucho Asahi Hall, Marunouchi Piccadilly and Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho, with Talents Tokyo 2026, run in cooperation with Berlinale Talents, in parallel. The 25 films announced so far position Filmex, once again, as the autumn's main showcase for new Asian directors — and a first test of how these Oscar submissions travel beyond their home markets.