Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer, director of Ten Canoes and Charlie’s Country, will preside over the international competition jury at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), which will take place from October 26 to November 4. The jury will select the Tokyo Grand Prix, Special Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress awards, as well as the Artistic Contribution Award. The remaining jury members have yet to be announced, while the competition lineup will be unveiled on October 1.
At the 2025 edition, 15 films competed for the festival’s main awards, with total prize money amounting to nearly $30,000 (¥4.7 million). The top prize went to Palestine 36, directed by Annemarie Jacir.
Born in the Netherlands, De Heer emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of eight and is now based in Tasmania. His filmography includes titles such as Dingo (1991), starring Colin Friels and jazz legend Miles Davis, and Bad Boy Bubby (1993), which competed at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize. In 2002, he returned to the Lido with The Tracker, which marked his first collaboration with acclaimed Indigenous Australian actor David Gulpilil.
De Heer has also competed at Cannes with The Quiet Room (1996) and Dance Me to My Song (1998), and won the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize in 2006 for Ten Canoes. He returned to the section in 2014 with Charlie’s Country, for which Gulpilil won the Best Actor award. Both films were selected by Australia as its entries for the international feature film category at the Academy Awards.
De Heer also competed at the Berlinale with Alexandra’s Project (2003) and returned to the festival a decade later with The Survival of Kindness, which premiered in competition in 2023 and won the FIPRESCI Prize. The film will be featured this year in Tokyo’s World Focus section as part of Australia Spotlight, a showcase of Australian cinema presented in cooperation with the Australian Embassy in Japan.
Commenting on his appointment, De Heer highlighted the opportunity to engage once again with an international selection of films on the big screen. “For any of us attending the Tokyo International Film Festival, it is a privilege. For me, as a filmmaker, it is even more so,” he said. He added that serving on the jury would allow him to “see at least 15 films and talk about them with other filmmakers,” referring to the titles selected for the international competition.
The 2026 edition of TIFF will open with the world premiere of the musical drama Sukiyaki and close with the South Korean zombie blockbuster Colony. Godzilla Minus Zero will be presented as the festival’s Centrepiece feature.