Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao and Japanese director Lee Sang-il are to receive the prestigious Kurosawa Akira Award at the 38th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Named after the legendary Japanese auteur, the Kurosawa Akira Award honors filmmakers “who are making extraordinary contributions to world cinema and are expected to help define the film industry’s future.” The Tokyo festival decided to revive the honor in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus. Previous honorees include Steven Spielberg, Yōji Yamada, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Koji Fukada, Xiaogang Gu and Mouly Surya.
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The 2025 honorees were chosen by a selection committee comprised of Yamada Yoji, Narahashi Yoko, Kawamoto Saburo and TIFF Programming Director Ichiyama Shozo. The Kurosawa Akira Award ceremony will be held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on Nov. 3.
Beijing-born Chloé Zhao is a writer, director, editor and producer who has scaled the heights of indie filmmaking and Hollywood. Zhao’s feature debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me screened at Sundance in 2015 to critical acclaim. Her followup, 2017’s The Rider, premiered in Cannes to rave reviews. With her third feature, the 2020 film Nomadland, Zhao won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well as best film and best director prizes at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Golden Globes as well as prizes at the DGA and PGA Awards. Zhao also directed Marvel Studios’ Eternals in 2021. Her latest feature, Hamnet, is set to release in theaters on Dec. 12.
Hailing from Niigata, Lee Sang-il is an award-winning Japanese filmmaker. Lee, a graduate of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image, earned early recognition for his graduation film Chong, which won four awards including the Grand Prix at the Pia Film Festival 2000. He received the Shindo Kaneto Award with Border Line in 2003, and in 2006, won best director, best screenplay and best film at the 30th Japan Academy Film Prizes for Hula Girls. He won five awards at the 34th Japan Academy Film Prizes with Villain (2010), and went on to earn further awards with Unforgiven (2013), Rage (2016) and The Wandering Moon (2022). His 2025 film, Kokuho, set in the world of Kabuki, world premiered in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and became a box office phenomenon in Japan, breaking records for live-action admissions and surpassing 10 billion yen in ticket sales.
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