39th Tokyo International Film Festival

Who should cross for this

Filmgoers, filmmakers, critics, programmers, distributors, students, and screen-industry visitors.

The festival is an international cinema platform in Tokyo and a practical cultural anchor for visitors following Asian and global film.

Suggested trip length: 5 nights for several screenings and city time

Buy on the official waves

General ticket sales open October 17 with staggered morning-to-afternoon releases by section (Animation/Youth blocks earlier; Competition later in the day). Pre-order lottery films are excluded from that Saturday sale. Wheelchair-area tickets follow on October 18 from 13:00.

During the festival, a ticket center at Yurakucho Station Central Exit sells inventory for the listed cinemas. Do not confuse filmmaker submission fees with audience ticket prices, and do not assume a Ginza box office can help you after a sellout.

Stay inside the venue cluster

Yurakucho and Hibiya remain the strongest bases. Ginza adds hotels and restaurants; Marunouchi suits Shinkansen arrivals. Build gaps between screenings for Q&As and cross-district walks—fifteen minutes on a quiet Tuesday becomes thirty on a packed Saturday.

November 3 is Culture Day, a national holiday during TIFF. Expect denser leisure traffic around Ginza and verify museum hours if you mix film with sightseeing that day.

Read each listing before you stack the day

Co-hosted events and industry programs sit beside the public screenings. Some need a separate badge or RSVP; others are open with a regular ticket. Accessibility, seating, and subtitle languages still vary by film—open the live page for the screening you care about instead of trusting last year’s PDF.

Build twenty minutes between cinemas even when the walk looks short on a map. Q&As overrun, and the Yurakucho ticket center queue does too.

Official information