The YAMAGATA International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF)
Q: Why a documentary film festival?
A: YIDFF strives to achieve the following goals:
- To bring together a diverse range of documentary work from around the world and illustrate the current state of documentary cinema, thereby casting light on a genre that opens unique avenues in the common global culture of cinema.
- To share the power of documentary and the voice of its visiting filmmakers by presenting documentaries from the world to a wider public.
- To debate new ideas in the art of documentary, and to actively make efforts to generate an innovative place for filmmaking, free and independent from the constraints of conventional cinema.
Q: Who organizes the festival?
A: The festival is organized by the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO). The festival has two offices, one in Yamagata and the other in Tokyo.
- Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO) (Yamagata Office)
Office Map
#201, 9-52 Kinomi-cho, Yamagata City 990-0044 JAPAN
phone: 81-23-666-4480 fax: 81-23-625-4550 e-mail: info@yidff.jp - YIDFF Tokyo Office
No.3 Yamada Bldg. 6fl., 22 Aizumicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0005 JAPAN
phone: 81-3-5362-0672 fax: 81-3-5362-0670 e-mail: mail@tokyo.yidff.jp
Q: Is the YIDFF held every year?
A: No. The YIDFF is taken place every two years.
Q: What about past winning films?
A: For past winners, reports, list of screened works, number of screened films, admissions etc. please go here.
Q: What is “YIDFF News”?
A: YIDFF News is the YIDFF’s official email magazine which bring you the latest news and information related to the YAMAGATA International Documentary Film Festival in Yamagata, Japan. Currently transmission dates are fixed at irregular intervals.
Q: What are the YAMAGATA Documentary Film Library Friday Theater?
A: Screenings, sponsored by the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO), are held mainly in the Film Library’s theater once a month (on 2nd or 3rd Friday). Works screened, including those from the YIDFF past line-ups, focus on documentary films rarely available for viewing at cinemas or on TV.
Q: What is the YAMAGATA International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF) Network?
A: It is a citizens’ volunteer group that was formed to support YIDFF. Incentivized by film director Ogawa Shinsuke, it was born in 1989 for the Festival’s first edition. In recent years, members take part in organizing the YIDFF Network film program and documenting the event on video and photo.
Q: What’s the Komian Club?
A: The Komian Club is a casual drinking place open to all participants during the Festival period. It was organized with the cooperation of old pickle factory Maruhachi Yatarazuke’s restaurant Komian and the volunteer organization Beautiful Commission from the early years of the festival until 2019. After the pickle company closed in 2020, New Komian Club was opened during YIDFF 2023 in the banquet rooms of the Yamagata Nanokamachi Washington Hotel. This has become the festival's signature gathering place, open to all, where guests and audience members alike can enjoy discussing film in a casual and intimate atmosphere.
* Don’t hesitate to contact the office directly if you have any other inquiries.