Director Milcho Manchevski, photographed on July 1, 2015. Archive portrait, not the 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival ceremony. Credit: Pmm1112 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Image source · License. Unmodified.
By Tito Baron Media News Desk
Milcho Manchevski’s Sister Brother Manhole Cover won the Tokyo Grand Prix at the close of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival on November 4.
The award, formally titled the Tokyo Grand Prix, The Governor of Tokyo Award, carries 3 million yen. Producer Jane Kortoshev accepted on the director’s behalf, while Manchevski appeared by video, according to the festival’s closing report.
The jury, led by filmmaker Rolf de Heer, highlighted the film’s combination of comedy and darker drama, together with its treatment of its characters.
Cineuropa’s October 30 review describes a brother and sister whose troubled road journey gives way to a more confined drama about survival, corruption and family loyalty. That critical account helps explain the film’s subject without treating the festival prize as a guarantee that every viewer will respond in the same way.
The award is the outcome of a jury decision, not a box-office ranking. The Japan Times independently reported the top-prize result.
Other competition honors went to Magic Atlas for the Special Jury Prize and Lisandro Alonso for directing Double Freedom. Heysel 85 received the Audience Award, a separate recognition from the jury’s Grand Prix.
Festival organizers reported preliminary totals of 204 films and 69,072 admissions across ten days. Those numbers describe the festival as a whole, rather than the audience for the winning film.
For audiences interested in seeing Sister Brother Manhole Cover, the remaining practical question is distribution. The sources reviewed establish its Tokyo success but do not confirm a Trinidad and Tobago release date or local screening.
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