The jury members and works nominated for the “East Asia Experimental Competition” have been decided!

This year’s newly redesigned open competition section, now called the “East Asia Experimental Competition,” received a total of 451 submissions from Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea, and after two carefully conducted rounds of screening 23 works were selected for nomination. These nominated works will be screened at each venue of the 2018 Image Forum Festival. The final evaluation will be conducted during the screenings at the Tokyo venue by the three jurors listed below, and 5 of them will be awarded prizes.

The 23 works nominated for the “East Asia Experimental Competition”

Stories floating on the wind　YOSHIGAI Nao/digital/9min./2018(Japan)
Morning　TSANG Yuk Hei/digital/26min./2017(Hong Kong)
Tokyo Ramblin'　FURUKAWA Taku/digital/5min./2018(Japan)
#Cloud　PAIK Jongkwan/digital/13min./2018(Korea)
On The Way Home　KIYAMA Mizuki/digital/3min./2018(Japan)
The Red Bridge is Falling Down　MORINAGA Daiki/digital/8min./2018(Japan)
Compliance Level 0　HAN Sung Nam/digital/23min./2018(Japan)
Metamorphous: Mountains and Streams (Ms. Yamakawa Keiko Never Looks Back) 　
KUROSAKA Keita/digital/10min./2017(Japan)
Highview　Simon Liu/35mm/19min./2017(Hong Kong, US, UK)
Jujuba　IKEZOE Shun/8mm/8min./2018(Japan)
Anywhere.　TAKAHASHI Lyota/digital/7min/2018(Japan)
The Spirits of Cairn　SOEJIMA Shinobu/digital/7min./2018(Japan)
Ex　YING Wei Min/digital/15min./2018(Taiwan)
Railment　HAYASHI Shunsaku/digital/10min./2017(Japan)
Dreamland　MIZUE Mirai/degital/5min./2017(Japan)
Mud Man "film version"　YAMASHIRO Chikako/digital/26min/2017(Japan)
One Phrase Theater　SAKURAI Jun × FURUKAWA Taku/digital/37min./2018(Japan)
Debris　OSHIMA Keitaro/digital/11min./2018(Japan)
With Friction, As Friction　YAMADA Sanae/digital/15min./2018(Japan)
AEON　MIYAJIMA Ryotaro/digital/4min./2017(Japan)
Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings　Bo Wang, Pan Lu/digital/28min./2017(Mainland China, Hong Kong)
Slow Motion, Stop Motion　KURIHARA Mie/digital/153min./2018(Japan)
A Yangtze Landscape　Xu Xin/digital/156min./2017(China)

“East Asia Experimental Competition” final evaluation jury

Shelly SILVER（filmmaker/USA）
Shai HEREDIA （filmmaker, director of Experimenta/India）
KURODA Ikuyo（BATIK’s leader, choreographer, dancer/Japan）

Application

“The Image Forum Festival,” the largest festival of moving image art in Japan, is accepting submissions of original moving image works. There are no restrictions whatsoever on genre (art films, documentaries, animated works, dramas, and so on), techniques used, or length. We are looking for works that go beyond existing concepts to expand the horizon of visual expression.

Application period: February 10th (Saturday) to March 31st (Saturday), 2018

Application section: East Asian Experimental Competition
▶ Application guidelines

What is the Image Forum Festival’s “East Asian Experimental Competition”?

The Image Forum Festival is a festival of moving image art that brings together for screening works with a high degree of expression, artistry, and creativity. A successor to “New Works of Underground Cinema” (1973-1975) and “Experimental Film Festival” (1981-1985), this festival, which expanded to include more international content and an open competition section, began in 1987 and is being held for the 32nd time this year.
The festival’s open competition section has come to be known as a gateway to success for groundbreaking young filmmakers in Japan, and in previous years has featured works by filmmakers and artists who have gone on to international success such as YAMAMURA Koji, KAWASE Naomi, IGUCHI Noboru, ISHIDA Takashi, and WADA Atsushi. This year we have expanded this section (formerly known as the “Japan Tomorrow” section) that had been restricted to Japanese works and relaunched it as the “East Asian Experimental Competition.”

What does it mean to be nominated?

The (approximately 20) works that make it through the first and second rounds of selection will be screened at this year's festival along as works nominated for prizes. The final selection will begin when the festival opens and the following prizes will be awarded.

　●Grand Prize (1): ￥300,000 + Prize certificate
　●Terayama Shuji Prize (1): ￥100,000 + Prize certificate
　●Excellence Prize (3): ￥30,000 + Prize certificate
　●Audience Prize (1): Prize certificate

Image Forum will also recommend nominated works for selection at various film festivals both in Japan and overseas and include them in programs it curates for overseas festivals.

News

●Opening screening: Jan Švankmajer’s newest work, Insects
The festival will be opened with a screening of Insects, the latest feature-length work by Jan Švankmajer, a master of surrealism and one of the world’s leading animation artists who has had a major influence on the fields of art and fashion. Employing motifs from the play Pictures from the Insects’ Life by the brothers Čapek and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, this new work premiered in January at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
In addition to Insects, the “Experimental Panorama” section, which features screenings of selected works from among the most talked-about new works by artists active in the global avant-garde, includes a variety of programs constructed around the latest experimental films, animated works, and documentaries from Japan and overseas. The full lineup will be released at the end of June.

●Christoph Schlingensief and YAMAZAKI Hiroshi retrospectives are in the works!
The “Filmmakers in Focus” section focuses on historically important filmmakers, and this year, under the title “Christoph Schlingensief: A life of challenges,” it will include a retrospective on this German artist who made his name as a maker of cult movies before expanding the scope of his work to include theater and social performance and eventually rising to prominence in the world of fine art, winning a Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 2011. This section also includes a memorial retrospective on YAMAZAKI Hiroshi, an artist known for his photographs and moving image works created through meticulous methods based on specific concepts, whose work has been reevaluated both in Japan and overseas since his death in 2017.

Schedule・Outline

Image Forum Festival 2018

■Venue, Date：
・Tokyo: August 8th ( Wednesday ) to 12th ( Sunday ), 2018 / Spiral Hall
・Tokyo: August 4th ( Sat ) to 10th ( Fri ), 2018 / Theatre Image Forum
After Tokyo we also plan to bring the festival to Kyoto, Nagoya, and Yokohama.

■Main Program：
East Asian Experimental Film Competition
Experimental Panorama
Filmmakers In Focus
■Organizer: Image Forum
■Co-organizer: Kyoto Art Center, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art
■Finance Support: Japan Arts Fund
■Sponsor: Daguerreo Press, Inc
■Support: Austrian Embassy Tokyo / Austrian Cultural Forum Japan
Lumen Gallery
■Venue collaborator: Wacoal Art Center
■Co-organizer (Christoph Schlingensief retrospective): Goethe-Institut Tokyo

© 2018 Image Forum All rights reserved.