Tokyo Film Festival Reveals Full 2026 Lineup

The Tokyo International Film Festival has revealed its full competition lineup for the 39th edition of Asia‘s largest film event.

As ever, the lineup is a mix of new features from Asia’s best auteurs, a sprinkling of Hollywood movies and projects from up-and-coming filmmakers.

As previously announced, the festival which runs from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, will open with Zeze Takahisa’s music drama Sukiyaki and close with Yeon Sang-ho‘s zombie action horror film Colony. Sandwiched between those two gala screenings will be the centerpiece screening of Takashi Yamazaki‘s Godzilla Minus Zero.

Other gala screenings include Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Michael Showalter’s Verity, Hiroshi Ando’s A Bouquet of Light for You, Sabu’s Arrested Memory, Kazuya Shiraishi’s Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar, Gavin Lin’s Sunshine Women’s Choir, Wayne Wang’s Diary of a Mad Old Man, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, Yukiko Sode’s All the Lovers in the Night, Ryutaro Nakagawa’s Your Story – Kimi No Hanashi and Yoshiro Nagikawa’s The Tiger and Her Wings The Movie.

The main competition at Tokyo will feature 15 films, all competiting for the Tokyo Grand Prix/Governor of Tokyo Award. Among the world premieres in the main competition are Akira Ikeda’s The Canary’s Lullaby, Qiu Jiongjiong’s Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting, Akira Yamamoto’s The Intertwining, Wang Jiangyong’s The Night That Binds Us, Garin Nugroho’s Red Before Dawn, Milcho Manchevski’s Sister Brother Manhole Cover and Yukiko Mishima’s Two Cigarettes, Three Nights.

The Asian premieres among the competition lineup include Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride, Lisandro Alonso’s Double Freedom, Samuele Rossi’s Even If Hell Came, Teodora Ana Mihai’s Heysel 85, Sun Xun’s Magic Atlas, Sérgio Graciano’s Memories of Prison, Bahman Ghobadi’s Trees Are Watching and Jelena Maksimović’s Until the Day Ends.

The competition features only four female filmmakers (Rubaiyat Hossain, Teodora Ana Mihai, Yukiko Mishima and Jelena Maksimović) and somewhat unsurprisingly Japan boasts the most number of entries with three.

The animation offer at Tokyo is always strong and 2026 is no different, with new anime projects from the likes of Masanao Kawajiri and Shingo Natsume, and Japanese premieres for films like Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado’s Forgotten Island, Brenda Lígia and Edu Felistoque’s Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World, Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy, and Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Tania Anaya and Sávio Leite’s Son of a Bitch.

The full lineup for the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival is below:

Behemoth! – dir. Tony Gilroy

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma – dir. Jane Schoenbrun

Fjord – dir. Cristian Mungiu

Wild Horse Nine – dir. Martin McDonagh

Verity – dir. Michael Showalter

A Bouquet of Light for You – dir. Hiroshi Ando

Arrested Memory – dir. Sabu

Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar – dir. Kazuya Shiraishi

Sunshine Women’s Choir – dir. Gavin Lin

Diary of a Mad Old Man – dir. Wayne Wang

The Beloved – dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen

All the Lovers in the Night – directed by Yukiko Sode

Your Story – Kimi No Hanashi – dir. Ryutaro Nakagawa

The Tiger and Her Wings The Movie – dir. Yoshiro Nagikawa

The Canary’s Lullaby – dir. Akira Ikeda

The Difficult Bride – dir. Rubaiyat Hossain

Double Freedom – dir. Lisandro Alonso

Even If Hell Came – dir. Samuele Rossi

Fuxi: Four Tales of Feasting – dir. Qiu Jiongjiong

Heysel 85 – dir. Teodora Ana Mihai

The Intertwining – dir. Akira Yamamoto

Magic Atlas – dir. Sun Xun

Memories of Prison – dir. Sérgio Graciano

The Night That Binds Us – dir. Wang Jiangyong

Red Before Dawn – dir. Garin Nugroho

Sister Brother Manhole Cover – dir. Milcho Manchevski

Trees Are Watching – dir. Bahman Ghobadi

Two Cigarettes, Three Nights – dir. Yukiko Mishima

Until the Day Ends – dir. Jelena Maksimović…Read more by Abid Rahman