German director Wim Wenders (Der Himmel über Berlin, “Perfect Days”) has been named president of the international jury at the 36th Tokyo Film Festival. This was announced by the organizers of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on Monday. Japanese actor Koji Yakusho won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his leading role in Wenders’ latest feature film Perfect Days.
In it, Yakusho plays a man who lives in Tokyo and cleans toilets. Wenders has been fascinated with Japan ever since he saw a film by master director Yasujirō Ozu in the 1970s.
The 36th edition of the TIFF Festival is dedicated to the great Japanese cinema master, who was born 120 years ago. The organizers said it was a pleasure to have Wenders there as an OZO fan. The German director and photographer was present at the first edition of TIFF in 1985 with his award-winning film Paris, Texas. In 1993 he served as Chairman of the Jury for the TIFF Youth Film Competition. Recently, he participated in the Tokyo Film Festival in 2011, at that time with his movie “Pina”. A tribute to choreographer Pina Bausch and her artistic theater Wuppertal was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Documentary Feature the following year.
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