** APRIL 2020 UPDATE **
Hello everyone, we have some good news and some bad news.
First of all, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel the public screening event of the 9th Annual Toyama International Film Festival. In these uncertain times, we are not confident in our ability to host neither a safe in-person festival nor a successful online festival this June, as we plan to do every year.
However, the festival is not canceled entirely. Our TIFF committee is still moving forward with the selection process for finalists, and will deliberate among itself to select the winners. Filmmakers will be notified of the status of their films and any awards they win at the end of June.
We understand this is not ideal. Filmmakers wish to share their unique works to a wide range of audiences, and moviegoers wish to experience thoughtful and engaging independent cinema. We apologize for not being able to provide these outlets this year, and we ask for your understanding.
We are still looking forward to viewing all of your submissions, and hope to see you again in person next year! Stay safe, everyone.
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The 9th Annual Toyama International Film Festival will take place in June of 2020 in Toyama Prefecture. We had such great success last year, that we are excited to share the visions of filmmakers all over the world once again with this small community. Submissions will be open until May 15th, 2020.
The 2nd Annual Toyama International Film Festival took place in the rural prefecture of Toyama, Japan. Started by a few English teachers in the area, we hoped to reach many people, not just in Japan, but around the globe. And we surely did. The festival was a tremendous success with over 100 submissions from 30 different countries. Quite a step from only 10 submissions in our first year. We hope to continue this in the coming year for the benefit of Japan.
The 1st Annual Toyama International Film Festival took place in a small room inside of a shopping center, with a capacity of about 70 people. The following year the event was held in the city of Toyama at a local independently-owned venue, Bodegas-Mambo with around 80-100 guests coming to view the films. This year we hope to expand even further and provide an even larger venue for participants and the movie-going community in Japan.
This year we have reached out to the rest of the world and challenge everyone to produce short films for the benefit of charity and to help create a film culture in the prefecture of Toyama.
Note: Due to time constraints, we cannot accept films that run over 10 minutes. However, any genre of short film will be considered for exhibition.
By entering the competition, the winners agree to participate in any such promotional activity and material as the Toyama International Film Festival may require.
There is no cash prize, however, we will send you the file for our laurel if selected.