| 2013-11-15 | | | Thank you for joining YIDFF 2013 |
The YIDFF 2013 has successfully ended. We would like to express our sincere and deep gratitude to everyone who participated in our festival.
YIDFF is held every other year and we always recognize both new tasks and continuous assignments to be carried out just after every edition ends. This year, we’ve again encountered old and new questions—how can we secure excellent temporary staff to manage every festival venue for the next, and future editions? How can we establish a continuous relationship with dedicated supporters and volunteers? How is it possible to “perfectly” prepare for the festival? How can we respond to the recent technological developments in both software and hardware to realize the best screening environment? And, most importantly, what sort of film festival should YIDFF develop to be?
Much effort and planning is required to tackle these issues, but we’ll try hard to go forward. Please look forward to our next edition, YIDFF2015, and see you again in Yamagata!
Takahashi Takuya (Director, YIDFF Yamagata Office)
| 2013-11-15 | | | Hurray to the Yamagata audiences! |
Thanks to our audience, our filmmakers, and our volunteers, among others, once again we were able to host an awesome film festival. Many times during the festival, I felt overwhelmed by the radiance and joy glowing on the faces of people I met. As The Punk Syndrome director J-P Passi proclaimed at the awards ceremony, “Yamagata audiences are the best!” And so are our staff—whether as volunteers in the cinema lobbies, as interpreters, as projectionists, as MCs, at Komian, on the phone at Headquarters, etc. etc. We at the festival offices can prepare all we can throughout the year, but nothing can ensure the live blast of energy that erupts on site. This year again we were blessed with a film festival put together by all those who participated—“A Festival That’s Ours” and I’m deeply grateful.
Sakai Ko and Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s trilogy, including award-winners Voices from the Waves and Storytellers, is now playing in a Tokyo cinema (Auditorium Shibuya, until Nov. 22). The Act of Killing, Bajarí: Gypsy Barcelona, Stories We Tell and other titles are now in negotiation for general cinema release in Japan. Thank you for your support so that Yamagata films will continue to be widely seen.
Fujioka Asako (Director, YIDFF Tokyo Office)