22 new or recent feature films and 6 short films will be showcased at the 11th Yokohama French Film Festival, to be held June 18 through 22, 2003.
Of the 22 feature films selected
at the festival, 5 titles have already found buyers in Japan and will therefore be presented in preview screenings prior to their commercial release.
Vincent Perez will be President of this year’s event, leading a delegation of French artists and professionals, composed of directors, actors, talent agents, producers and sales agents.
A Film Market will be held to coincide with the festival, at which films will be presented in DVD/video screenings, with digital sound and subtitled in English. At the market, French sales agents will be offering a separate selection of recent French films.
The festival provides ongoing support to distributors in their efforts to present French films to Japanese audiences. Thus, over the past 10 years, between 40 and 50 French productions have been released each year on movie screens in Tokyo and around Japan. Having built their reputation on their success in the country’s arthouse theaters, French films retain a keen following in this traditional audience category. However, recent years have seen a new audience emerging for French films, that of the multiplex theaters.
The growth of multiplexes coupled with French productions' return to a certain style of genre films have boosted the confidence of Japanese distributors, who no longer hesitate to launch directly into more ambitious release patterns for their films. 2001 saw the release of "The Crimson Rivers" on 262 prints, "Yamakasi" on 130 prints and "Amelie," on over 50 prints. Large-scale release has evidently become the norm, with 2002 witnessing the release of "Vidocq," "8 Women" and "Brotherhood of the Wolf" on close to 100 prints, and "Wasabi" on 221 prints.
The situation has thus developed over the past 10 years, with the distribution of French films in Japan moving towards a two-faceted market. Far from leading to a prejudicial treatment of films, this new development allows all films the opportunity of gaining release according to their own potential and the particular audiences they attract.
This new situation has obviously reaped fine rewards in terms of results, since, with 2 million spectators registered to French-language films, 2002 set a new record for both movie attendance and box office receipts (with French films capturing 1.3% of the market). 2002 will go down as a year of consolidating French films' position as well as the expansion of the market. Of all non-French-speaking countries in the world, Japan remains the most receptive to French films.
The Yokohama French Film Festival is organized by Unifrance with support from the Yokohama City Hall, in collaboration with the French Embassy in Japan.
Click here to see all feature films and short films selected
For further information:
Magali Montet – Director of Communication
Tel: (+33) 1 47 53 27 41; Fax: (+33) 1 47 53 27 44
Email: magali.montet@unifance.org
