Indonesian author Kamila Andini’s latest project, “The Four Seasons of Java,” won two awards at the first Tokyo Gap Financing Market Awards held on Friday.
TGFM is part of TIFFCOM, the market division of the Tokyo International Film Festival. “The Four Seasons of Java” won TGFM’s top award, the Tokyo Project Award, which carries a cash prize of 2 million yen ($13,225), and the Konchak Award, which provides sound post-production services worth $25,000 from Cambodia-based Konchak Studio.
The film, a magical realism drama that confronts the dark underbelly of progress and power in modern Indonesia, is currently in post-production and previously screened at the Gap Financing Market in Venice. The film tells the story of Pertiwi, a woman who returns to her village after being in prison for over ten years for murdering a young man to protect herself from an attempted rape. Her homecoming coincides with the arrival of electricity to remote communities, a collision of modernity and personal trauma that, as Andini describes, feels “repeated in our daily lives.”
TGFM jury member, festival director and programmer Paolo Bertolin said in announcing the award: “TGFM 2025, we would like to acknowledge the overall quality and diversity of the lineup, which has given us the real challenge of selecting a unique project for this award.More specifically, we would also like to highlight and celebrate the selection of Southeast Asian projects, which reflect a variety of creative approaches and production. It represents the exciting geography of the region where artistic talent is born” vitality, and indeed, the projects we have selected for the Tokyo Project Awards 2025 originate from this region, offering a mature and powerful statement by a filmmaker tackling sensitive and relevant themes with committed, sincere and energetic cinematic storytelling. ”
The Asian Generation Z Award, which was decided by a selection committee of five film students between the ages of 20 and 28, and a cash prize of 500,000 yen ($3,305), went to the sci-fi western film “Hum,” directed by Filipino film director Don Josephs Rafael Ebrahan.
In this film, a young veterinarian treats injured livestock in a shelter after a devastating earthquake. While caring for them, her professor discovered something surprising. That means her students can “talk” to animals. As she learns how to harness this talent, she discovers that the creature can sense and even predict aftershocks. Using this newfound connection, she helps Cowboy’s friends and family prepare for what’s to come. But her world is shaken again when another person with the same abilities appears…a man the police believe is responsible for causing the earthquake that destroyed the town. When he mysteriously arrives, she attempts to unravel his mystery by interrogating him in a secret primitive language that only the two of them speak.
The special award at the Asian Generation Z Awards went to Andrea Benjamin Manenti’s debut film, “We Must Fuck Before the World Ends,” a cross-cultural youth comedy set in Italy and the Philippines. The film tells the story of Ren, a 16-year-old Filipino-Italian teenager who is held captive by the possessive love of his mother, Mia, and must be freed during a three-day Filipino wake as Typhoon Edith approaches Manila. After receiving news that Mia’s mother Moini has passed away in the Philippines, mother and son return to Manila. There, Len is charmed by his cousin’s babysitter, Jolina, and learns the lessons of love from his eccentric cousin, Monique. As typhoon Edith approaches and his family becomes increasingly dysfunctional, Ren must assert his independence.
The White Light Award from Thailand’s White Light, which provides post-production services worth $25,000, went to director Natsuki Seta’s Japan-Taiwan co-production Polaris. The story unfolds on a winter night at a bar on Ni-chome. Based on Li Qinmei’s novel The Night of the Shining North Star, the film centers on women of different ages, nationalities, and sexualities who gather at the titular shop under soft blue light to share drinks, laughter, and snippets of life. As their stories intersect like stars in a constellation, the film explores themes of self-identity and human connection before the women part at dawn.
