The Japan Arts Council has established the Young Creator Development Funds under the subsidiary aid of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, to support the development of live-action and animation projects, mainly for overseas activities. The new program of the Japan Arts Council is called the Creator Development Program, and comprises three programs that will be implemented under the name Film Frontier in the field of feature filmmaking (live-action/animation). Four emerging directors have been selected for the first phase of the Global Networking Program.
The program will focus on supporting the planning and development activities of the young filmmakers, and will support them in realizing their feature film projects while receiving guidance from mentors with a global perspective, allowing them to take on challenges overseas.
At the announcement of the selected applicants held on November 1 during the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ichiyama Shozo, the supervisor for the Film Frontier Global Networking program and one of the selection committee members, announced the four creators.
"We received more than 40 applications, which was more than we expected,” he told a large audience of film industry representatives and media, “and it was hard to make a decision while reading through the application documents, including each proposal and budget. There were many excellent projects, and the four people selected were evaluated not only for the excellence of their proposals, but also for their high possibility of completion and high potential for overseas success," he commented.
Guest speaker Christian Jeune (Director of the Film Department and Deputy General Delegate, Cannes Film Festival) commented that the prominence of Japanese films at the Cannes Film Festival has recently been attracting attention once again, and he has high hopes for the four filmmakers' success. Actor and director Saitoh Takumi, commenting based on his experience participating in the Marché du Film in Cannes this year, delivered a heartfelt message of encouragement, saying that traveling abroad will be a chance for filmmakers to further deepen their understanding of film.