Organizers for the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) announced last week that this year's edition will open with Junji Sakamoto’s “Climbing for Life,” a drama based on the true story of Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest in 1975, and close with Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.”

TIFF is Japan’s largest film festival, and it customarily kicks off with a Japanese film and closes with a highly anticipated overseas production. This year, the festival will be held from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5 at venues in and around the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya shopping and entertainment complex.

Zhao, who won a best director Oscar for her film “Nomadland” in 2021, brings her acclaimed vision to an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s poignant bestselling novel that breathes new life into William Shakespeare and his family, delving into themes of grief, marriage and parenthood. The film stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Agnes.

Zhao is set to attend TIFF to receive this year’s Kurosawa Akira Award, given to filmmakers who have “left their marks in cinema and will be entrusted with the film industry's future.” Director Lee Sang-il, whose three-hour kabuki drama “Kokuho” recently broke box-office records and became the first live-action Japanese film in 22 years to top ¥10 billion, will also receive the award. In August, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan selected "Kokuho” as Japan's contender for the best international feature film category at next year's Academy Awards.

The honorees for the Kurosawa Akira Award were selected by a committee composed of director Yoji Yamada (whose 91st feature, “Tokyo Taxi,” serves as the festival’s Centerpiece film), casting director and producer Yoko Narahashi, film critic Saburo Kawamoto and TIFF Programming Director Shozo Ichiyama.

Last week's announcement also included the festival’s Gala Selection, featuring films such as Ari Aster’s dark comedy “Eddington,” Scott Cooper’s Bruce Springsteen biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” and Hikari’s Japan-U.S. co-production “Rental Family,” starring Brendan Fraser. Fraser, who won the best actor Oscar in 2023, this time plays an American in Tokyo who makes his living role-playing as a family member for hire.