Award-winning directors Chloé Zhao and Lee Sang-il will be the recipients of the 2025 Kurosawa Akira Award at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which runs October 27-November 5.
The award recognizes filmmakers who have already made waves in cinema and are expected to help guide the industry in the future. Last year’s recipients were Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake, who recently scooped the Locarno Film Festival’s Golden Leopard for Two Seasons, Two Strangers, and Taiwanese filmmaker Fu Tien-yu (Day Off).
Japan Academy Film Prize-winning director Lee was recently in Cannes with Directors Fortnight title Kokuho, about the son of a gangster who is taken in by a kabuki master, which also became a surprise hit at the Japanese box office.
After studying film at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image, Lee earned recognition for his graduation film Chong, which he followed with a string of award-winning films including Border Line (2003), Hula Girls (2006), Villain (2010), Unforgiven (2013), Rage (2016) and The Wandering Moon (2022).
Zhao, a writer, director, editor and producer from Beijing, has made a mark in Hollywood and internationally with films including Nomadland, which won Venice film festival’s Golden Lion and three Oscars including Best Picture, and Marvel Studios’ Eternals. In 2023, she launched production company Book of Shadows with producing partner Nic Gonda. Most recently, she co-wrote and directed Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, which is premiering in Toronto and scheduled for release in 2025.
This year’s honorees were selected by a committee including Yoji Yamada, Yoko Narahashi, Saburo Kawamoto and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
Commenting on the award, Zhao said: “I’m honored to receive this award. Kurosawa’s films contain both the greatest vastness of nature and the deepest truth of the human psyche. To be connected to this lineage is truly humbling.”
Lee said: “I would like to express my gratitude to esteemed director Yamada Yoji, the members of the selection committee, and the Tokyo International Film Festival. This honour would not have been made possible without the dedication of all my casts and crews, and I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for their contributions to my work.”
The Kurosawa Akira Award ceremony will be held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on November 3.
AloJapan.com