NIFF hosted an audition for a kid who would be on our official poster. Although with the short application period, we received 156 applications from all over the country. The girl caught our eye because of her neutral and unique atmosphere that fits with our image of the Nara International Film Festival.
We think that the poster well delivers the NIFF’s character and the concept of the film festival “Creating films, showing films, and watching films.”
The Nara International Film Festival is celebrating its 5th edition and the 10th anniversary since the year of the pre-festival event.
In this memorable year, NIFF established a partnership with the Berlinale’s children and youth section, Generation and will initiate NIFF’s long cherished youth jury program: Berlinale Spotlight－Generation.
This youth program showcases recommended films from the Berlinale Generation that entertains people of all generations. The 13 to 18 year-old jurors choose winners from the state of the art line-up.
Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu is a Romanian filmmaker born in Iaşi, Romania in 1968.
His debut film, Occident / West, was premiered in Quinzaine des Realisateurs in Cannes in 2002 and was an audience hit in Romania.
In 2007, his second feature, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, was awarded the Palme d’Or in Cannes. The film later received several awards as best film of the year from various international associations of film critics. It also won the European Film Academy awards for best film and best director.
He returned to Cannes in 2009 as a writer-producer-co-director with the collective episodic film Tales from the Golden Age and as a writer-director in 2012 with Beyond the Hills – double awarded for Best Screenplay and Best actresses.
He was a member of the Jury headed by Steven Spielberg at the 66th Festival de Cannes (2013)
Bacalaureat / Graduation is his fifth film presented in Cannes, awarded for Best Director in 2016.
On Jun. 5th, 2018 the Nara International Film Festival (NIFF) and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA), the largest international short film festival in Asiaーauthorized by the Academy Awardー presented the joint program, CINEVISION.
CINEVISION is a series of discussion cessions for young creators organized by SSFF & ASIA (festival founder/ president: Tetsuya Bessho), and NIFF (festival executive director: Naomi Kawase) who is celebrating the 10th anniversary this year. Naomi Kawase was invited to the discussion event as a special guest speaker.
Every session of CINEVISION invites top-class guest speakers in the film society to talk about skills needed in the film production and perspectives of production in cinema and moving image in the future while speaking about their own experiences in filmmaking.
At the begining of the event, Naomi Kawase released the initial announcement of new projects of NIFF and the official festival poster. She commented that she is hoping to make this edition of the film festival the first step to the world for the both young filmmakers and children who doesn’t know movie well.
CINEVISION is a discussion panel series of an audience interactive event. Each session, CINEVISION invites panel guests to discuss about films and creation of films.
During the NIFF 5th edition, CINEVISION will be held inside the world heritage site of Kasuga Grand Shrine inviting the Romanian Filmmaker, Cristian Mungiu and Tetsuya Bessho as guest speakers.
Mr. Bessho comments on the event: “Congratulations on your 10th anniversary! SSFF & ASIA is also 20th anniversary this year. This is the anniversary project that Naomi Kawase (executive director of NIFF) and I decided to create a legacy for the future of cinema! Cinema is the story of human being painted by the paint color of the light. I hope this project will become letters to create a new “vision” from present to the future of the film world.”
Tetsuya BESSHO: Founder and President of SSFF& ASIA
Naomi KAWASE: Executive Director of NIFF
