23rd Tokyo International Film Festival closed its curtain in a great success this year. The 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival TOYOTA Earth Grand Prix Screening presented by COREDO Muromachi was held in COREDO Muromachi of the Nihonbashi Muromachi Hall on 11/1 (Mon).

The screening film was TOYOTA Earth Grand Prix award-winner, “Waterlife”, directed by Kevin McMahon.


Kevin McMahon appeared on stage for the greeting and put his feelings of joy for winning the award into words. “I am very honored to be able to win the award with this “Waterlife”. .
“I think that the environmental protection is a very important issue because people’s life and the humanity are at stake. That is why I am glad that TIFF is actively focusing on the ecology and environmental protection. “

The research took over four years, one year to shoot the film and the post production took another year. We asked the director to talk about the struggle of making the film and the highlights of the film.

"Since I grew up near Niagara Falls, grew up surrounded by water.
The reason that I produced this film is because we humans are made of 60-70% of water and when you think of that fact, thinking of water means thinking about mankind.”

And as we conducted a survey about water, which will become the core of the story, it became very difficult to control my emotions because of the intertwined complex issues that arose...Knowing what is happening in reality, we had to continue shooting the film without losing our hopes.

But thanks to comments which I received from the Native American women, I was able to complete the film without losing my hopes.

We’ve focused our film production on the Great Lakes (located in the border of United States and Canada). Since it is far from Japan, you might consider this issue to be irrelevant but this water flows from the lake to the sea, and then to the world. So, I want the audiences to take this matter seriously and see it not only as the story that happens in the foreign country but something that would involve the people around the world. "

Mr. McMahon (director) made his stage appearance, without showing any fatigue, on Sunday, one day after the end of the film festival.
The trophy of the TOYOTA Earth Grand Prix "is a beautiful trophy," he said as he raised it in the air with an air of shyness.


Screening of this film took place in Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall, with the courtesy of Mitsui Fudosan Co.,Ltd. Muromachi COREDO’s Special Co-sponsorship..
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Newly opened as a new attraction with a concept to enliven the Nihonbashi city in Japan and aspiring to transmit the new cultural information to the world from Nihonbashi, COREDO is planning to open various types of event in the future.

Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall（Japanese Site)
COREDO Muromachi