Tokyo Film Festival to Honor Mohammad Rasoulof and O Mipo

Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian filmmaker who secretly fled his country in 2024 after receiving an eight-year prison sentence, will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival. He will share the honor with Japanese director O Mipo.

A four-person committee selected the laureates: filmmakers Yamada Yoji and Lee Sang-il, cinematographer Ashizawa Akiko and TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo. Capcom Co., Ltd. funded the award's return in 2022 after it had gone 14 years without being presented. Last year it went to Lee Sang-il and Chloé Zhao.

Rasoulof won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2020 for "There Is No Evil," which later screened at the 33rd TIFF. His "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" took the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2024 and, as Germany's entry, was later nominated for the Oscar for best international feature. He was still finishing that film when he fled Iran in secret, shortly before Cannes.

His history with Iranian authorities runs long. He was jailed in 2010 while shooting a film and arrested again in 2022, then provisionally released after eight months. He has shot many of his films in secret and smuggled them abroad to screen.

The committee praised the "humanist perspective" of his recent work, "which portrays even those who perpetrate oppression as ordinary citizens."

"Receiving the Kurosawa Award is a great honor for me," Rasoulof said. "His films are profound explorations of the human condition and the moral choices we make in moments of crisis."

O Mipo took a different path to the honor. She began as a script supervisor after working at Obayashi Nobuhiko's production company. Her feature debut came in 2006 with "The Sakais' Happiness." "The Light Shines Only There" (2014) won her best director at the Montreal World Film Festival and served as Japan's Oscar submission. "Being Good" (2015) was named best Asian film at the Moscow International Film Festival.

After a nine-year gap in which she had two children, she returned with "Living in Two Worlds" (2024), which competed at Shanghai. Her latest film, "How Dare You?" (2025), played in competition at Zlín.

O said receiving the award on the 20th anniversary of her debut left her grateful and humbled. "Winning the Shindo Kaneto Award in 2010 provided me with the vital support to keep making films. Though my progress has been slow, reaching the Kurosawa Akira Award is a stroke of fortune that makes me truly savor what a happy cinematic journey I have had," she said.

The festival will also screen a selection of Kurosawa's favorite films alongside two of his own works. The lineup includes Charles Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928), 4K restorations of Kurosawa's "Sanshiro Sugata" (1943) and "Ikiru" (1952), and Abbas Kiarostami's "Where Is the Friend's House?" (1987).

Elsewhere at the festival, Isomura — who won the Japan Academy Film Prize for best supporting actor for "The Moon" — will serve as jury president of the Ethical Film Award. Three members of TIFF's student PR team will join him on the jury. Sumitomo Corporation established the prize with the festival in 2023 to highlight films dealing with the environment, poverty, discrimination and diversity. This year's nominees are Brenda Lígia's "Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World" (Brazil), Isabelle Stever's "I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming" (Germany/Ukraine) and Vee Shi's "Time and Tide" (Australia).

Isomura argued that watching on a small screen can fool people into thinking they understand something immediately, when real understanding of social issues comes from working toward the answers. "Cinema possesses the unique power to pause our hurried pace, allowing us to experience that very process through the lives and emotions of others," he said.

Isomura also hosts the Shizuoka Film Festival in his hometown. His Netflix credits include "Alice in Borderland," and Netflix will release his next project, "Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?" worldwide on Oct. 22. The festival will present the Ethical Film Award on Nov. 2, along with a talk session with Isomura.

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26–Nov. 4, with its TIFFCOM market taking place Oct. 28–30.