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The Women’s Empowerment Section returns to TIFF with renewed purpose. Launched in 2024, now rising in 2025 — at a time when Japan celebrates its first female Prime Minister. The world is shifting. Leadership is shifting. Cinema must shift with it.
 
This year, women-directed films arrive from Spain, Hong Kong, Turkey, Egypt, the Tibetan-Canadian community, and Japan itself. Stories of migration. First love. Disability. Child labor. War and exile. And the intimate negotiation between creation and motherhood.
 
Small stories. Immense courage.
Real lives expanding the screen.
 
There are moments when cinema listens.
When silence becomes declaration.
When a single voice can move the world.
 
Technology is on our side. Digital cinema and AI have broken open the map. Women write, direct, edit, finance, and distribute their work across borders once guarded. The tools evolve. Opportunities grow. Yet the industry’s balance has not caught up.
 
Equality is essential. Excellence demands it.
 
This section was created to place women’s visions at the center of cinema — not as an exception, not as a category, but as the core.
 
We invite you to witness, to celebrate, and to stand with these voices as they reshape the future — from Tokyo to the world.
 
This year, the Women’s Empowerment Section at the Tokyo International Film Festival gathers seven films from seven different worlds, each one a reminder that women’s voices are not simply stories… they are movements.

 
Here is our 2025 selection — a journey across borders and truths:
 
Happy Birthday ― Egypt

Through the eyes of a young maid longing for childhood and dignity, the film exposes class walls we are trained not to see.
 
Someone Like Me ― Hong Kong

A young woman with cerebral palsy claims agency, desire, and her right to be more than society’s definition of her body.
 
Sato and Sato ― Japan

A couple reversing traditional roles tests love, ambition, and the fragile balance between success and identity.
 
About Me ― Japan

A woman confronts her own body’s unpredictability and begins rewriting what fulfillment means on her own terms.
 
I Am Nevenka ― I Am Nevenka

One woman’s brave decision to speak the truth about harassment forces a system — and a society of silence — to face itself.
 
Cinema Jazireh ― Turkey / Bulgaria / Romania

A mother’s search for her missing son becomes a defiant act of survival in a world determined to silence women.
 
100 Sunset ― Canada (Tibetan community)

Identity, belonging, and longing collide as a young introverted observer discovers that looking closer can reveal new paths home.
 
Each film holds a spark.
Together, they form a mosaic — revealing the many textures of the human experience through a distinctly female gaze.
Together, they ignite a fire of liberation, courage, and truth.
 
These storytellers are not only expanding cinema’s territories.
They are expanding its heart, its imagination, and its future.
 
TIFF is open now.
I invite you to join us, feel these stories, and support the women shaping the next chapter of filmmaking — from Tokyo to the world.

 
 
Symposium
「From Tokyo to the World — Japanese Women Producers Go Global」
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2025
Time: 18:30-
Place: Tokyo Midtown Hibiya BASE Q
Co-presented by: Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Admission: Free / Open seating / Simultaneous interpretation in English provided.
Application open until October 29, 2025
ws.formzu.net/fgen/S46318633/
 
Japanese cinema has always held a special place in the hearts of global audiences. Yet despite its artistry, too few Japanese films — especially those shaped by women — achieve true international reach. As Senior Programmer of the Women’s Empowerment Section, I am committed to changing that reality by expanding both visibility and opportunity for women working in Japan’s film industry.
 
This special session brings together three trailblazing Japanese producers whose work is already taking Japan to the world:
 
Miyagawa Eriko — Emmy Award–winning producer behind major global hits such as Shōgun, who builds powerful creative bridges between Japan and Hollywood.
 
Eiko Mizuno Gray — CEO of Loaded Films and producer of festival-acclaimed titles including Plan 75 (Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Mention) and Renoir (Cannes Competition), known for elevating Japanese cinema with international finesse and vision.
 
Murata Chieko — Producer of the ambitious co-production Kokuho, an example of large-scale Japanese storytelling with internationally recognized craft and commercial reach.
 
In this conversation, we will share practical and strategic insight on how Japanese films — especially those led by women — can thrive globally:
• How to shape stories for international expansion without losing cultural authenticity
• Building the right teams: directors, talent, partners, and international champions
• Financing, rights, and timing in a rapidly shifting industry
• Leading cross-border collaborations with cultural intelligence and creative confidence
 
More than a panel, this is an extension of the Women’s Empowerment Section’s mission: to cultivate mentorship, support international co-productions, and ensure that women in Japan have full access to the world stage.
 
Japan is entering a new era — politically, creatively, globally. Women are ready to lead that shift.
 
Join us as we accelerate those voices and open new horizons for Japanese cinema — from Tokyo to the world.