Iran director appears on Tokyo fest red carpet, attends presser

Iran director Reza Mirkarimi has made an appearance on the red carpet rolled out for jurors of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), attending the event's presser afterwards.

The director appeared at the opening ceremony held October 25, a media report said Thursday, adding Mirkarimi along with other four members of the 30th TIFF Competition jury sat down with the press on October 26.

Mirkarimi who was selected to serve on the panel of jury of TIFF will judge 15 features in the main competition of the TIFF.

“Presided over by US actor-director Tommy Lee Jones, the jury is a global village, hailing from Iran, France, China and Japan,” a media release published on the festival official website read.

This comes as Mirkarimi’s first film ‘Under the Moonlight’ won the Best Director award and the Special Jury Prize at TIFF in 2001. His latest film Daughter (2016) won the Golden George awards for Best Film at 38th Moscow International Film Festival.

Iranian director-writer-producer Reza Mirkarimi said during the press conference, “I was at this famous festival and beautiful land a long time ago as a filmmaker”, adding, “Judging is much harder than filmmaking in my point of view, but I will look for cinematic value first and foremost.”

The 30th edition of the Japan-based festival runs through November 3.

AG/AG