Japanese Filmmaker Takes Top Award in Rotterdam

[FWN Adm]

Toshihiko Tanaka's human relationships drama REI - along with Iranian filmmaker Oktay Baraheni's film - took the top award at the Rotterdam Film Festival this year. Toshihiko Tanaka took the Tiger Award - with a cash prize of 40,000 Euros.

The drama revolves around a woman in her early thirties in a company job in Tokyo who is struggling to understand the value of her life until she meets a deaf landscape photographer living deep in the mountains of Hokkaido.

"The jury decided to give the Tiger Award to a burgeoning film director who chose to develop his debut film in a loose and unbounded environment," said the jury consisting of Marco Müller, Ena Sendijarević, Nadia Turincev, Billy Woodberry and Herman Yau.

Additional winners with other prizes included Indian director Midhun Murali, Australian filmmaker Jaydon Martin, and the NETPAC Award for the best Asian feature film, awarded by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, went to Ishan Shukla's Indian director dystopian animated feature Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust.

Congratulations to the winners and wishing them best of success in the future.

View the Official Trailer for REI.

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