Tokyo Film Festival opens with 204 works and red carpet in the rain

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival opened on October 26 in the Hibiya, Yurakucho, Marunouchi and Ginza districts, and will run until November 4, for a total of ten days. The theme chosen for the 2026 edition is “CONNECT - the world beyond cinema that unites”.

The opening film is “SUKIYAKI Ue wo Muite Arukou”, while the centerpiece of the program is “Godzilla -0.0” and the closing film will be “Colony”. Overall, the festival features 204 works in its program this year, a number higher than the 184 films of the 2025 edition.

At the opening ceremony on October 26, held in the rain, the lead actor of the opening film, Junichi Okada, walked the red carpet together with Japanese and international actors and directors.

Alongside the festival, the TIFFCOM 2026 audiovisual content market is being held from October 28 to 30, hosted at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center. The festival’s competitive section selected 15 films from a total of 1,892 submissions this year, a volume that signals the breadth of the international pool from which the event draws.

The growth in the number of works in the program, from 184 to 204 compared to the previous edition, accompanies a festival that is increasingly positioning itself as a meeting point between Japanese cinema and international productions. The TIFFCOM market serves as a parallel commercial framework to the screenings, concentrating exchanges among audiovisual industry operators into three days, from October 28 to 30.

The choice of “Godzilla -0.0” as the centerpiece and of an international production such as “Colony” for the closing reflects the dual approach of the event, divided between a nod to Japanese genre cinema and openness to titles of global reach, in line with the “CONNECT” theme chosen for this edition.