Oscar Entries From Thailand, Nepal Head to Tokyo Filmex Competition; Lee Kang-sheng Joins Jury — SkimNews
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- Tokyo Filmex will run Nov. 20–29 in Yurakucho with a 10-title competition, four of which are first features, open to emerging Asian directors with films finished in 2025 or 2026.
- Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in every Tsai Ming-liang feature since "Rebels of the Neon God" (1992), will sit on the three-member international jury, with additional jurors to be named later.
- Thailand's "9 Temples to Heaven" (Sompot Chidgasornpongse's narrative debut, launched in Cannes Directors' Fortnight) and Nepal's "Elephants in the Fog" (Abinash Bikram Shah's debut, the first Nepali film in Cannes' official selection) are both Oscar submissions competing for the Grand Prize.
- "Elephants in the Fog" won the Jury Prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard strand and centers on Pilati, head of a third-gender kinnar community who hunts for a missing girl when police won't act.
- "9 Temples to Heaven" won best director and best actor at the Shanghai International Film Festival; it follows a 63-year-old man dragging nine relatives on a one-day temple tour after a fortune teller's death warning.
- The Grand Prize carries JPY700,000 (~$4,500) and the Special Jury Prize JPY300,000 (~$1,900), with the ceremony on Nov. 29; Anthony Chen's "We Are All Strangers" (Singapore's Oscar submission) closes the festival, while Maha Harada's "In My Father's Room" opens it.
- Lee Kang-sheng will also appear on screen in a double bill of Tsai Ming-liang's "Walker" shorts "Dust" and "Night Journey," and the Special Screenings section includes Hong Sang-soo's 34th feature "The Day She Returns" plus the documentary "American Doctor," about U.S. volunteer physicians who treated the wounded in Gaza before lobbying media and Congress.
Why it matters: Four of the 10 competition slots go to debut features, giving first-time Asian directors a high-visibility Tokyo platform alongside Cannes-recognized work, while the jury slot for Lee — Tsai's on-screen surrogate for over three decades — signals the festival's auteur-cinema priorities. The inclusion of "American Doctor," a Hot Docs Audience Award–winning Gaza documentary, into a lineup otherwise focused on Asian art-house titles is a notable programming choice for a Japanese festival running during heightened scrutiny of Israel-Gaza coverage.
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