Film festivals often walk a tightrope between championing bold arthouse cinema and celebrating crowd-pleasing entertainment. Few manage that balancing act as deftly as the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). Speaking to Goggler, festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando reflected on the philosophy guiding the festival, the importance of ethical filmmaking, and why theatrical cinema remains strong in Japan.
Balancing Art and Entertainment
For Ando, maintaining a balance between artistic ambition and accessibility is one of the festival’s defining challenges.
“If we put too much emphasis on the artistic side, people stay away,” he explained. “Only a limited number of people will come. But if we switch to the other end, the artistic community will think this is not a serious film festival. They’ll ask, ‘Why should we come here when we can watch entertainment films in theaters?’”
The solution, he says, lies in carefully calibrating the programme.
“You have to strike a balance between the two,” Ando said. “My programming director and I are constantly in dialogue about maintaining that balance. But even if you achieve it, there is another question: are the films good or bad? Ensuring that all the films are good films is the real challenge. It’s easy to say, but difficult to do.”
That philosophy has helped make TIFF a festival with broad appeal. When the festival closed with Godzilla Minus One, audiences had the chance to see the blockbuster long before it reached the rest of the world, underscoring how the festival caters to both cinephiles and mainstream audiences.
The Ethical Film Award and the SDG Vision
One of TIFF’s most distinctive initiatives is its Ethical Film Award, which celebrates films addressing pressing global issues.
For Ando, the award is rooted in a broader philosophical framework inspired by the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“The award is related to the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said. “It’s not exactly the same, but it’s very similar. The purpose behind those objectives is very important to us.”
The SDGs recognise that social progress, economic growth, and environmental protection are interconnected, and Ando believes these ideas should influence the way film festivals operate.
“This is connected to how we manage the entire festival,” he said. “We would like to continue making this programme one of the central pillars of TIFF.”
A Moving Target
Measuring success for a festival of TIFF’s scale is surprisingly elusive.
“It’s difficult,” Ando admitted. “You cannot imagine the final destination.”
He described his tenure as a constantly shifting pursuit.
“When I first came in, the goal was in one place. When I got close to it, I moved it further. And then when I got close again, I moved it again. The goal keeps shifting.”
For Ando, that constant movement is both a challenge and a motivation.
“The more successful TIFF gets, the more things I want to do.”
The Strength of Theatrical Cinema in Japan
While cinemas in many countries are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, Japan’s theatrical landscape appears comparatively healthy.
“In Japan, more and more people are going to theaters,” Ando said. “Japanese cinema is doing well and revenues are increasing.”
He noted that the success of domestic films has been particularly striking.
“Every year, Japanese movies outperform Hollywood.”
This stands in contrast to some international festivals adjusting their focus toward streaming platforms. Ando pointed to the Busan International Film Festival as an example of a festival increasingly embracing streaming.
“But in our case, we are still pursuing theatrical,” he said. “The film business here is still doing well.”
For TIFF, that commitment remains central to its identity: celebrating cinema as a communal experience while continuing to evolve alongside the industry.
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