COMPETITION

key visual

International
Competition

The main competition program of NIFF, the International Competition aims at discovering emerging new talents. All the International Competition films are the directors’ first or second feature films and are presented as their Japanese or Nara premieres. This year, we have received more than 256 films from 67 countries.

Award

GOLDEN SHIKA AWARD

Jury

Jury President

Cristian Mungiu

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.

NARA-wave:
Student Film Competition

NARA-wave is the NIFF’s student film competition program which includes both short and full-length films. From this edition, NARA-wave selections are not only from students in Japan but also from abroad. All of the films introduced in this section are provided with English and/or Japanese subtitles.

Youth Jury Program: Berlinale Generation-Spotlight

The NIFF 2018’s newly launched youth program, “Berlinale Generation-Spotlight” presents five recommended films from the Berlinale Generation. The exquisite film selection artistically stimulates and entertains not only children but also audiences of all age.