26/10/2011

For Mika Morishita, the head of TIFFCOM, the market arm of the Tokyo International Film Festival (October 22-30), the decision to invite an unprecedented number of European exhibitors was made as part of a plan to expand the market internationally, and, with it, business for Japan.

Through a partnership with the British Embassy in Tokyo, Morishita was able to invite some 13 British sales companies this year, as well as French heavyweight, Gaumont, the Greek Film Center, and London-based Wide. “This is a great opportunity for British sales companies to connect to the Japanese market and for Japanese channels to explore international deals,” said Morishita who this year welcomes some 700 buyers to Asia’s largest content market, as well as 226 exhibitors.

“Japan is still relatively untapped for many of our member companies,” said Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, senior policy executive at the British producer’s alliance, Pact, which was part of the British delegation.

There are also several other opportunities for European players to connect at the market.

The Project Market is a platform for new production projects, which runs as part of TIFFCOM. Several European projects are taking part this go-round, including animation project The Mozart Question from France’s Frederic Puech and the French-Japanese live action film,- The Overfind from Jean Armand Bougrelle. “There are many opportunities here for international companies to do business,” Morishita said. Meanwhile activity at recent markets suggests that Japanese distributors are now more open than before to buying in international films, which has long been a limited activity here. Part of this activity can be attributed to a high Yen which makes imports cheaper but might make the export of Japanese product more difficult this go-round.