Following successful visits to Tokyo by Michel Ocelot for the theatrical release of The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess, and by Alice Diop for that of Saint Omer, punctuated by interviews, meetings with the public, screenings of previous works and exchanges with Japanese personalities, the French Cinema Season in Japan continues apace.
This label, awarded by Unifrance to several Japanese distributors, enables them to benefit from exceptional promotional aid.
Arnaud Desplechin headed to the Land of the Rising Sun for a week-long promotional tour to mark the September 15 release of his film Brother and Sister, distributed by Moviola. The company, loyal to French cinema, organized a press conference and several interviews at the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, as well as meetings with the public at the mythical Bunkamura Le Cinéma, recently relocated a few steps from the no less famous Shibuya pedestrian crossroads. In partnership with the Pia Film Festival and the Institut Français in Japan, the company also organized an impressive retrospective of the filmmaker's work. Some films, such as L’Aimée and Playing "in the Company of Men", were presented for the first time with Japanese subtitles. From Tokyo, Desplechin went on to meet audiences in Nagoya, Osaka, and Kyoto.
Meanwhile, Cédric Klapisch's Rise got off to an excellent start at the Japanese box-office, topping the country's independent box-office charts on the weekend of its release. The film was awarded the "French Cinema Season in Japan" label, enabling its co-distributors New Select and Cetera to organize several large-scale promotional events, in the presence of Japanese stars from the worlds of cinema and ballet, ensuring that the release received excellent media coverage.
The French Cinema Season in Japan continues until the end of the year with strong promotional activities and the visit of the teams behind Winter Boy by Christophe Honoré (distributed by Cetera International), La Maison by Anissa Bonnefont (distributed by SYNCA Creations Inc.), and The Taste of Things by Trần Anh Hùng (distributed by Gaga Corporation).
As the world's third largest film market and Asia's leading market for French films, Japan is more than ever a key territory for French productions. Unifrance will be organizing the next Market and French Film Festival in Yokohama in March 2024.
