At the same time, Ando announced that the festival would be relocating from its former home in the Roppongi Hills development to Tokyo’s historic, high-end culture district of Hibiya-Ginza. In March, Ando replaced the festival’s longstanding artistic director Yoshi Yatabe with industry veteran Shozo Ichiyama, who is known for a lengthy career as a producer on works by Takeshi Kitano, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien and celebrated Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke.

In 2021, Ando sits alone at the top of the Tokyo film festival’s leadership ranks, and he has wasted no time in implementing many of his big-picture ideas for how the 34-year-old festival can begin to attain the global relevance and prestige befitting Japan’s rich cinematic heritage.Īdele on Why New Album Will Serve as a Pandemic 'Reminder,' Won't Be Followed by a Major Tour But the pandemic threw a wrench into his early ambitions to shake up the festival last year, and the event’s outgoing former director, Takeo Hisamatsu, still retained operation control over many of the event’s functions. Tokyo International Film Festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando is finally free to make some of the big changes he believes will revitalize Japan’s oldest cinema event.Ī career diplomat who spent over 40 years in Japan’s Foreign Service, Ando joined the Tokyo festival in the new role of chairman midway through 2019.