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Funding Opportunities NEWS 

Tokyo Film Festival to Launch Gap-Financing Market

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The program aims to match 20 selected film, TV and anime projects with financiers from around the globe. Organizers will begin accepting applications from producers this week.

The Tokyo International Film Festival’s annual content market, TIFFCOM, said Friday that it will launch a new program designed to help Japanese and international producers secure financing for film, TV and anime projects. The inaugural Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) will be held Nov. 4-6, midway through the Tokyo film festival, which remains scheduled to take place Oct. 31-Nov. 9.

 TGFM will select 20 projects to pitch to established film professionals from around the globe, including:

A. producers,
B. sales agents,
C. distributors,
D. financiers,
E. broadcasters and
F. other potential funders.
G. The organizers stressed that they are aiming to match high-calibre, well-developed projects with an influential set of invited funders.

“The goal of the TGFM is to get the projects on track and, as a result, to produce higher-quality films that will be selected by international film festivals and markets,” the organizers explained in a statement. TGFM is open only to fictional works. Feature films and animations must have a running time of at least 70 minutes and be intended for theatrical distribution. The producers must show that they have secured at least 60 percent of the budget. Eligible TV projects must be a minimum length of 5×26 minutes and have 50 percent of financing in place.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently mulling an extension to the state of emergency issued on April 7 for one month in Tokyo and six other prefectures due to the Covid-19 coronavirus. The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed to summer 2021 as a result of the virus. As in most other countries, cinemas are currently closed and production on hold.

However, the country has not been as badly affected by the virus as the US and Europe – as of April 30, it had reported close to 14,000 infections and 425 deaths. “While we will continue to monitor the global health situation and explore many options for holding the 33rd edition of the festival, TIFF is now open for submissions on the festival website from April 28 through July 17, 2020,” said the organisers in a statement.

TIFF is also taking part in the “We Are One: A Global Film Festival” online initiative, which starts on May 29, with 20 other film festivals, including Berlin, Venice and Cannes.

For details: https://www.jcs.tokyo/en/news/newsletter/2020_market