FIAPF’s decision to make A-list status official, with Tokyo among the 17 festivals named, is unlikely to change much about the event, according to the filmmaker leading its competition jury.
Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer, the director of “Bad Boy Bubby” and “Ten Canoes,” was asked at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival’s jury press conference on Tuesday whether the classification mattered or was a redundant system.
“I think Tokyo has always been considered one of those festivals by most people who attend festivals. Tokyo was effectively an A festival. And so in that sense, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference,” de Heer said.
He allowed that the classification seems to be carrying more weight in determining the quality of films a festival can secure. “And so in that sense, it may help that it is officially now again A, but I don’t think it changes the festival so much,” de Heer said.
In March, FIAPF, the international federation of film producers’ associations, replaced its four-category accreditation system with a single list and designated 17 festivals as A-list, a term the industry had long used informally. They include Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Busan, Shanghai, Cairo and Tokyo. Busan and Toronto made the list for the first time.
Korean producer Oh Jungwan, founder of Bom Film Productions (“The Foul King,” “A Tale of Two Sisters,” “A Bittersweet Life”), said de Heer’s answer covered it and that she was “not a film festival person.”
“So I don’t know what is A-list or not. So maybe probably A-list means good, so but as an audience, we’re not going to the festival because of their A-list or not. We just go to watch film and enjoy the feeling, the festival feeling,” Oh said.
Pressed by the journalist, who had hoped someone would call out a system that ranks some festivals above others, de Heer offered a final word: “It matters a great deal to some people, and not at all to others. And that is as it should be.”
The rest of the jury, Japanese actor Watanabe Makiko (“M/Other,” “Love Exposure,” “Tokyo Vice”), New York- and Tokyo-based producer Alex Lo of Cinema Inutile, whose credits include Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion winner “Father Mother Sister Brother,” and Tokyo-based colorist Yov Moor (“The Taste of Things,” “Grand Tour”), did not weigh in on the question. The five-member panel will choose the Tokyo Grand Prix from 15 competition titles. The festival runs through Nov. 4.
De Heer was also asked about prospects for Australia-Japan co-productions. “It makes no sense for a Japanese film to shoot in Australia, it makes no sense for an Australian film to shoot in Japan. Europe is very good at doing co-productions only on a financial basis, really. Australia is not so good at that,” he said. Co-productions built on “a natural story where some things need to be shot in Japan, some things need to be shot in Australia” will always be possible, he added, “if the scripts come and if they are right.”
Lo, whose “Heads or Tails?” won best director at Tokyo last year, said producers in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere “are increasingly seeking co-production opportunities,” largely because local government support is lacking.
On how a divided jury would settle on a winner, de Heer said the answer would depend on the situation. “I’m with four other very reasonable people, and I’m sure we can find a way through that we don’t end up with some sort of lesser compromised film, but a really interesting film that maybe some of us don’t like,” he said.
Oh, a Tokyo juror for the second time, recalled once arguing for seven hours on behalf of a film. “Every other jury [member] hated me,” Oh said, adding that she hoped she would not have to fight de Heer for seven hours this time.