Participants Selected for Talents Tokyo 2026 | Pre-event: Talents Tokyo Alumni Film Screening To Be Held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum!

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), in cooperation with the Talents Tokyo Organizing Committee, have been hosting Talents Tokyo, a talent development program for filmmakers, annually since 2010.

Now in its 17th year, the program will welcome 17 filmmakers from across Asia, selected from a record number of more than 500 applicants. Four internationally acclaimed professionals, including film director Midi Z and producer TAN Si En, will lead a seven-day workshop. To date, the program has nurtured 251 filmmakers, many of whom have gone on to make their mark on the international film scene.

Talents Tokyo 2026 Outline

Talents Tokyo Alumni Film Screening & Special Talk Session

Ahead of Talents Tokyo 2026, Talents Tokyo will host a special screening event showcasing films by alumni from November 6 to 8.

The program will feature three films that have won awards at major international film festivals: Diamonds in the Sand by Janus VICTORIA, A Journey in Spring by WANG Ping-Wen, and Autobiography by Makbul Mubarak.

〈Films〉

(Talents Tokyo 2013)	Janus VICTORIA | Best Debut Film, 27th Udine Far East Film Festival Diamonds in the Sand (2024) November 7 (Saturday): 15:35- November 8 (Sunday): 13:00- A Q&A session with director Janus VICTORIA and producer SOGA Masumi will follow each screening.

(Talents Tokyo 2019)

WANG Ping-Wen | Best Director, 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival A Journey in Spring (2023) November 7 (Saturday): 10:20- November 8 (Sunday): 15:50- A Q&A session with director WANG Ping-Wen will follow each screening.

(Talents Tokyo 2025)

Makbul Mubarak | FIPRESCI Prize, 79th Venice International Film Festival Autobiography (2022) November 6 (Friday): 16:30- November 7 (Saturday): 12:45- A Q&A session with director Makbul Mubarak and producer Yulia Evina Bhara will follow each screening.

_{Special Event: Talents Tokyo × Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions}

On Sunday, November 8, Talents Tokyo will host a special session titled “Between Making and Light”, commencing at 10:30 a.m.

The event brings together filmmaker ODA Kaori (Talents Tokyo 2015), a finalist in the second edition of the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions Commission Project, and producer SOGA Masumi (Talents Tokyo 2011), founder of Spanic Films and producer of Diamonds in the Sand.

Drawing on their experiences at Talents Tokyo, the two will share behind-the-scenes stories from their filmmaking careers and discuss what inspires their creative work. They will also reflect on the role and significance of filmmaking and the works presented at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, a festival that has long explored new forms of moving-image expression and how audiences experience them. [Moderator: SHIMIZU Yu, Programmer, Tokyo International Film Festival]

Special Screening Outline

This initiative promotes the "Tokyo2050 Strategy." Strategy 15: Culture & Entertainment — “Nurture artists and creators”