Tokyo, Japan — Renowned Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), celebrating his distinguished career and enduring contributions to cinema. Scheduled between October 28 and November 6, the festival will host a Special Talk on November 1 featuring Tarr alongside Japanese director Yoji Yamada at the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya venue.
Bela Tarr, whose influential filmography includes the epic 438-minute saga “Satantango,” which won the Berliner Zeitung Reader’s Jury award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994, has long been a towering figure in international filmmaking. His other notable works, such as “Werckmeister Harmonies” and “The Turin Horse,” which garnered the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, have solidified his status as an auteur of profound insight and innovation.
Post-2011, after directing “The Turin Horse,” Tarr surprised the global film community by declaring his retirement from filmmaking. However, he has since dedicated himself to nurturing upcoming talents, founding the film.factory school in Sarajevo and hosting various filmmaking workshops around the globe.
In a notable recent endeavor, Tarr led a workshop in February 2024 in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. During this event, participants took part in creating short films, with one of the projects helmed by director Kaori Oda, who also produced a documentary capturing the behind-the-scenes process.
Continuing its focus on these new creations, TIFF will present screenings of these films made during the Fukushima workshop. Additionally, a special discussion titled “The Fukushima Hamadori Film, Art and Culture Project × Tokyo International Film Festival 2024 — Fukushima Hamadori as Seen with Béla Tarr” is slated to be a key event.
Reflecting on the festival’s history with Tarr, TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama recalled the 1995 screening of “Satantango” as a landmark moment. The film’s unconventional style and narrative depth had a profound impact on audiences and has left a lasting mark on TIFF’s legacy.
Ichiyama stated, “Bela Tarr’s visionary approach not only reshaped how stories could be told through cinema but also how they could be experienced by audiences worldwide. His shift towards education and mentoring embodies his commitment to the art of filmmaking and his influence on the future generation of filmmakers.”
Through the Lifetime Achievement Award, TIFF acknowledges not only Tarr’s past accomplishments as a director but also his ongoing role in shaping the contemporary and future landscapes of cinema.
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