Pia Film Festival

The Pia Film Festival (Japanese: ぴあフィルムフェスティバル, Hepburn: Pia Firumu Festibaru) (also known as the PIA Film Festival or PFF for short) is an annual film festival established in 1977.[1] According to film scholar Jasper Sharp, the festival "not only ranks as a vital hotbed from which the careers of some of Japan's most talented young filmmakers have been launched, but it also lays claim to being the first ever film festival in Japan."[2]

Pia Film Festival
LocationTokyo, Japan
Founded1977
Websitehttps://pff.jp/jp/

History

The festival was first held in 1977 as the "Off Theater Film Festival" by the Tokyo listings magazine Pia.[2] Early jury members included Nagisa Oshima and Shuji Terayama, and the second festival featured such later star directors as Sogo Ishii, Yoshimitsu Morita, and Shunichi Nagasaki.[2] According to Bryan Hartzheim writing in 2010, "many of the biggest directors of the last 20 years had their debuts at Pia."[3] Other filmmakers who were screened at the PFF before making their professional debut include Joji Iida, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Akihiko Shiota, Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Shinobu Yaguchi, Lee Sang-il, Naoko Ogigami, Kazuyoshi Kumakiri,[2] Sion Sono, Naomi Kawase, and Yuya Ishii.[4]

PFF Award

The PFF Award Competition accepts submissions with "no restrictions whatsoever on the eligibility of its entrants" with no regard to whether the work is on film of video, is long or short, is fiction, documentary, or animation.[1] For the 39th festival in 2017, 548 entries were received.[5] Films in the Competition compete for several prizes, including the Grand Prize and the Runner-up Prize, awarded by a jury.[1] The festival also features retrospectives of international filmmakers such as John Cassavetes and Lee Sang-woo.[3]

PFF Scholarship

Award winners at the PFF are eligible for the PFF Scholarship, which supports the production of one film for theatrical release each year. Begun in 1984, PFF Scholarship films include A Touch of Fever (1992), Down the Drain (1993), Hole in the Sky (2001), Border Line (2002), Yoshino's Barber Shop (2003), Park and Love Hotel (2007), A Stranger of Mine, Sawako Decides, and Household X.[6][7]

References
  1. "About Pia Film Festival". Pia Film Festival Official Web Site. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. Sharp, Jasper. "Midnight Eye feature: The Pia Film Festival and Jishu Eiga". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  3. Hartzheim, Brian. "2010 Pia Film Festival: Award Winners". Asia Pacific Arts. University of Southern California. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  4. Vroman, Nicholas. "THE 33RD PIA FILM FESTIVAL". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. "PFFアワード2017、グランプリは東京藝大出身の清原惟による「わたしたちの家」 - 映画ナタリー". 映画ナタリー (in Japanese). Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  6. "Scholarship Works". Pia Film Festival Official Web Site. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  7. Jasper Sharp Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema, p. 199, at Google Books
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