Spanish rural thriller The Beasts won three top awards at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ended on Wednesday. The movie walked away with the Tokyo Grand Prix for Best Feature, Best Director for Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Best Actor for Denis Menochet, who plays a farmer living with his wife in a remote Spanish area. Essaying a French couple (the wife is portrayed by Marina Fois), they settle down in a Galician village to run an organic farm. But their presence is seen by the villagers as a threat to their way of life.
The Beasts is Sorogoyen’s fifth work, which premiered at Cannes in May before travelling to festivals such as San Sebastian, where it won an audience award.
The Tokyo Grand Prix includes a cash prize of Three million yen, while the director and the actor will receive 300,000 yen each.
The Festival’s Special Jury Prize of 500,000 yen was given to Houman Seyedi’s Iranian drama, World War III, which tells the tale of a poor labourer, played by Mohsen Tanabandeh (A Hero). He works on a movie set, where a film condemning dictators is being shot. But he soon finds that the moviemakers themselves turn tyrannical. World War III ends in a horrific tragedy.
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It had earlier won the Best Feature Award at Venice Horizons and got Tanabandeh the Best Actor Prize. It is Iran’s submission for the 2023 Oscars.
The Best Actress Award was taken by Spain’s Aline Kuppenheim for her role in the Chilean drama, 1976, in which she is an upper-middle-class woman who has a secret awakening during the early years of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Helmed by Manuela Martelli, it premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
A tradition was broken when the Festival gave away its Best Artistic Prize to Sri Lanka’s Peacock – about human trafficking – directed by Sanjeewa Pushpakumara. This honour usually goes to an individual. Another surprise was that the jury did not find any work suitable for the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award. Now in its second year, it is open to filmmakers in Japan who have not yet worked in commercial cinema.
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