The Tokyo Film Festival has announced that Gu Xiaogang and Mouly Surya will be receiving the prestigious Kurosawa Akira Award at this year’s edition, which will take place from October 23 to November 1.
The Kurosawa Akira Award is presented to filmmakers who have made significant contributions to the industry and are expected to shape its future. It was first awarded last year after a 14-year hiatus, with Alejandro González Iñárritu and Kōji Fukada being the inaugural recipients.
The winners for 2023 were chosen by a selection committee comprising Yamada Yoji, Dan Fumi, Narahashi Yoko, Kawamoto Saburo, and TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo.
Gu Xiaogang gained recognition for his debut feature, “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and also won the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex the same year. Mouly Surya, on the other hand, made waves with her debut film, “Fiction,” which received four awards including Best Picture at the Festival Film Indonesia in 2008. Her second feature, “What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love,” became the first Indonesian film to be selected for the Sundance Film Festival after being presented at TIFF in 2013. In 2017, Surya’s third feature, “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts,” premiered at Cannes and was released in theaters in 14 countries. It also won the Grand Prize at Tokyo Filmex and was selected as Indonesia’s entry for the Oscars.
The Kurosawa Akira Award ceremony will be held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on October 31. Additionally, there will be a press conference with the award recipients at the nearby Base Q on the same day at 15:00.
The Tokyo Film Festival continues to recognize and honor outstanding filmmakers from around the world, and this year’s recipients of the Kurosawa Akira Award, Gu Xiaogang and Mouly Surya, are undoubtedly deserving of this recognition.
