The 21st French Film Festival in Japan was held June 21-24 at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall and Toho Cinemas Nichigeki, two sites located in the heart of Tokyo's Ginza district.
Thirteen feature films and a program of short films, all of which were screened for the first time in Japan, were showcased in the presence of eighteen French actors and directors, including Nathalie Baye (this year's festival patron), Lou Doillon, Déborah François, Ludivine Sagnier, Stéphane Brizé, Jacques Doillon, François Ozon, and Raphaël Personnaz. The presence of this delegation considerably boosted attendance at the event, which registered around 6,670 admissions this year, compared to 4,065 in 2012, without taking into account the figures from provincial screenings, which are currently underway.
In addition to film screenings followed by discussions with French artists, a meeting was held at the Apple Store, Ginza, with the director François Ozon, whose film In the House opened the festival. This meeting was recorded and will be made available at a later date as a podcast.
The director Jacques Doillon was invited to the Film School of Tokyo to give a master class hosted by the Japanese director Kunitoshi Manda.
Numerous exhibitions (showing original posters of films presented at the festival, trailers and a Making-Of from 2012) were also organized in Tokyo department stores, offering the general public greater access to information about the event.
This year, the festival's Audience Prize was awarded to Populaire by Régis Roinsard, starring Romain Duris, Déborah François, and Bérénice Béjo.
Organized in collaboration with the French Institute in Japan, the French Film Festival traveled to the provincial cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Fukuoka, with screenings held in the presence of Nathalie Baye (Kyoto) and Jacques Doillon (Kyoto and Fukuoka). The French Institute also held a retrospective dedicated to Nathalie Baye's movie career, presented in Tokyo and provincial cities.
