# Tokyo Film Festival Adds Nippon Cinema Now Competition, Crosscut Asia+ Section, New Award Honoring Women in Film

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/tokyo-film-festival-adds-nippon-cinema-now-competition-crosscut-asia-section-new-award-honoring-women-in-film/
- Published: 2026-09-07T15:12:56+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-07T21:24:03+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/tokyo-film-festival-new-competition-award-honoring-women-1236852405/
- Topics: Asia, Entertainment, Film, World

## Key points

- TIFF adds three new strands: a competition, an Asia section, a women's award
- Crosscut Asia+ debuts with six films from Indonesia, the Philippines and beyond
- Critic Hata Sahoko wins the inaugural Kawakita Kashiko Award for women in film

## Summary

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled three new initiatives for its 2026 edition: a Nippon Cinema Now competition, a Southeast Asia-focused Crosscut Asia+ section, and the Kawakita Kashiko Award honouring women in film. The changes give Japanese filmmakers greater international exposure, revive cross-regional ties with Southeast Asian cinema, and recognise women's contributions to film culture, as the festival broadens its scope ahead of its 39th edition, running from 26 October to 4 November in Tokyo.

Nippon Cinema Now will present a Best Film prize and a Special Jury Prize, decided by a mixed Japanese and international jury, with festival director Hisamatsu Takeo saying it aims to spotlight new talent for global audiences. Crosscut Asia+, developed with the Japan Foundation as a successor to the 2014-2019 Crosscut Asia strand, launches with a six-film Indonesian and Filipino lineup themed "Side by Side", curated by programmers from Jakarta and Tokyo. The inaugural Kawakita Kashiko Award, named after pioneering distributor "Madame Kawakita" and selected by an all-women committee, goes to critic Hata Sahoko, who introduced films including "Mon Oncle" and "Breathless" to Japanese audiences and reflected on the barriers women faced in the industry.

## Coverage

- [Variety: Tokyo Film Festival Adds Nippon Cinema Now Competition, Crosscut Asia+ Section, New Award Honoring Women in Film](https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/tokyo-film-festival-new-competition-award-honoring-women-1236852405/)
- [The Hollywood Reporter: Tokyo Film Festival Adds New Initiatives, Kashiko Kawakita Award to Honor Women in Cinema](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tokyo-film-festival-2026-new-initiatives-1236693260/)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.