Hong Kong acting icon Tony Leung will serve as the president of the International competition jury at the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival. The actor has a long history with the event, as he gave a masterclass at the festival last year. He also attended the event for the screening of his 2013 film “The Grandmaster,” and now he is all set to return to Tokyo to head up a jury that will be announced soon.
Tony Leung to Serve as Jury President at Tokyo Film Festival:
The chairman of the Tokyo Film Festival, Ando Hiroyasu, said in a statement,
“We are very pleased and deeply honored that Mr. Tony Leung will be serving as Jury President for the International Competition at a time when TIFF is enhancing its presence as a leading film festival in Asia. Mr. Leung, who has an illustrious career as one of the world’s most critically lauded and internationally admired Asian actors, has participated in TIFF several times in the past and has many fans in Japan.”
Meanwhile, Leung also expressed his excitement to join the jury and stated,
“I am immensely honoured to be on the jury team at TIFF this year. Japan is close to my heart in more ways than one and to be involved in celebrating film in this way, is a big deal for me. From the age of 12, growing up in Hong Kong, I remember going to see all the classic Japanese movies from that time. These exciting trips to the cinema were the start of a great love affair between Japanese film, people and its culture for me, that has just grown and grown. I’m already expecting the festival to be full of surprises and a lot of fun to preside over, I’m sure. What I hope is that it will be a bit of an adventure, with an audacious line-up of quality films. I just, ‘feel’, when it comes to judging, trusting fellow jurors’ feelings as well as my own, will make a positive contribution to the selection process.”
The 2024 Tokyo Film Festival is from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6.
Who is Tony Leung?
Tony Leung is one of Asia’s most successful and internationally recognized actors. He is the recipient of several accolades that include top honors like the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor for his performance in Wong Kar-wai’s film In the Mood for Love. Moreover, the actor was named by CNN as one of “Asia’s 25 Greatest Actors of All Time“.
Leung is best known for his collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai, with whom he has worked in seven films, including Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000), 2046 (2004), and The Grandmaster (2013).
