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Friday, 18th October 2013
In Events In Japan,
Hollywood descends on Tokyo
Tokyo is at the centre of the showbiz world this week as Hollywood legends including Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola arrive in the city to enjoy one of Asia's largest celebrations of film and cinema.
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off last night (October 17th) with a screening of horror flick Rigor Mortis, directed by Juno Mak of Hong Kong and in the running for the Asian Future award.
Films from Iranian and Georgian creators are also among those set to be shown, as well as a number of Chinese-made feature films that have been nominated for prestigious awards in two categories.
Coppola arrived in the Japanese capital last night to celebrate his latest offering The Bling Ring, which will be treated to a special screening section for high profile films next week. He was accompanied by his daughter Sofia, who directed the film.
Organisers of the festival highlighted its contribution in giving up-and-coming young filmmakers a platform, as well as recognising the hard work of established industry members.
"Since the very first TIFF in 1985,...del (it) has been a platform for talented young filmmakers to win international recognition and find inspiration," they said in a statement.
Head judge Chen Kaige, a well-known Chinese director, agreed with the sentiment and said via a video message that "good films require talent. Without talent nothing can be done".
"Most of the time we could only find this kind of unique understanding of the world in the early age of a filmmaker’s career. So that’s why we want to pay very close attention to young filmmakers’ works," he added.
The TIFF will run for nine days and see a plethora of screenings from a wide variety of nations. Some showings will be open to all while others will be for industry members only.
Written by Graham McPherson
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