Rasoulof, O Mipo Win Kurosawa Akira Award at TIFF — SkimNews
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- Mohammad Rasoulof and O Mipo will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, selected by a committee including Yamada Yoji, Lee Sang-il, Ashizawa Akiko, and TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo.
- Rasoulof fled Iran secretly in 2024 shortly before Cannes after being sentenced to eight years in prison; he finished "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" during the escape, and the film went on to win the Cannes Special Jury Prize and become Germany's Oscar entry for best international feature.
- O Mipo, who debuted in 2006 with "The Sakais' Happiness" and won best director at Montreal for "The Light Shines Only There" (Japan's Oscar submission that year), said reaching the Kurosawa Award on her 20th anniversary as a filmmaker was "a stroke of fortune."
- Capcom Co., Ltd. backed the award's revival in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus; last year's recipients were Lee Sang-il and Chloé Zhao, and the committee praised Rasoulof's "humanist perspective" that portrays even oppressors as ordinary citizens.
- TIFF's Kurosawa tribute will screen 4K restorations of "Sanshiro Sugata" (1943) and "Ikiru" (1952), alongside Charles Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928) and Abbas Kiarostami's "Where Is the Friend's House?" (1987).
- Isomura, the Japan Academy Film Prize winner for "The Moon" and star of Netflix's "Alice in Borderland," will serve as jury president of the Ethical Film Award; his Netflix project "Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?" releases globally on Oct. 22.
- The festival runs Oct. 26–Nov. 4 with its TIFFCOM market Oct. 28–30, and the Ethical Film Award will be presented Nov. 2 alongside a talk session with Isomura.
Why it matters: Rasoulof's award carries political weight: Iran sentenced him to eight years for films authorities deemed subversive, forcing him to smuggle "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" out of the country for its Cannes premiere. Honoring him alongside a veteran Japanese filmmaker at one of Asia's major festivals amplifies international recognition of work his government tried to silence.
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