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| 24 February 2009 |
| Japan’s Departures (おくりびと) wins an Oscar! |
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 Congratulations to Director Yojiro Takita and his crew for winning the prestigious and highly coveted Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in the 81st Annual Academy Awards.
Departures was the closing film of the 12th Japanese Film Festival receiving unanimous praise from our festival audience.
The Japan Foundation, Sydney is thrilled with Departure’s win, and look forward to bringing more high calibre films in the year to come. |
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| 13 February 2009 |
| Sydney Winners Announced |
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| And here are our Sydney survey winners:
Major Prize ($200 dinner voucher at Azuma Restaurant, courtesy of Azuma + Gold Class Double Pass, courtesy of Greater Union Cinemas)
Second Prize Winners ($100 gift voucher, courtesy of Kinokuniya Bookstores)
- Elaine Phillips, Ashfield NSW
- Belinda Salk, Sydney NSW
- Michael Lee, Sydney NSW
- Kaori Iijima, Sydney NSW
- Ceri Foster, Sydney NSW
Runner-Up (An Always - Sunset on Third Street DVD, courtesy of Madman Entertainment)
- Sophie Matthews, Townsville QLD
- Irmine van der Geest, Coogee NSW
- Shinobu Arai, Sydney NSW
- Sakae Wong, Vaucluse NSW
- Osama Abdul-Nobi, Baulkam Hills NSW
- Alasdair Robertson, Northbridge NSW
- Chris Saccone, Drummoyne NSW
- Christine Stock, Drummoyne NSW
- Ikuno Fox, Camperdown NSW
- Blake Dickson, Malabar NSW
Congratulations to all our winners and a huge thankyou to everyone who participated. We hope to see you at our festival again this year! |
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| 2 February 2009 |
| Melbourne Winners Announced |
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Thankyou to everyone for supporting the 2008 Japanese Film Festival and a big thankyou to all who spent time to fill out the response survey. Your feedback is appreciated and highly valued.
We are pleased to announce the Melbourne survey winners: |
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| Major Prize ($200 dinner voucher at the prestigious Nobu Restaurant) |
- Kenji Dantsuji, Laverton VIC
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| Runner-Up (An Always - Sunset on Third Street DVD, courtesy of Madman Entertainment) |
- Robyn Blackwood, Bundoora VIC
- James Moore, Lower Templestowe VIC
- Junko Ebihara, Prahran VIC
- Mark Pederson, Moreland VIC
- Min, Donvale VIC
- Leia, Brunswick West VIC
- May Nakajima, Parkdale VIC
- Minako Fujita, Melbourne VIC
- Soichi Moritani, Northcote, VIC
- David Muller, Carlton VIC
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| Congratulations to all our winners. |
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| 12 January 2009 |
| Happy New Year! And what a year 2008 has been. |
After 13 extraordinary days of non-stop Japanese films with 32 screenings in two of Australia’s trendiest cities – Sydney and Melbourne – over 10,000 plus audiences attended the 12th Japanese Film Festival, making it a groundbreaking phenomenal success!
So on behalf of all of us at the Japan Foundation, Sydney, we thank YOU for your support and look forward to another year of outstanding Japanese cinema in 2009.
For those who participated in the survey, we will be drawing out the winners late January. Winners will be contacted via telephone and/or email and their names will be published on this website. Good luck to all who entered. |
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| 22 December 2008 |
| 7th Australia – Japan Student Film Forum – Winners announced |
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The 7th Australia – Japan Student Film Forum was held on Monday 8 December, screening a selection of fantastic short films from emerging filmmakers from Japan and Australia.
The event was a huge success with a near capacity crowd enjoying the display of young filmmaking talent on offer and voting for the audience choice award.
Congratulations to the award winners in the following three categories:
JAL Australian Film Award winner - "Snow", directed by Dustin Feneley (Victorian College of the Arts).
Dustin receives a return air ticket to Japan (courtesy of JAL), trophy (JPF), and an invitation for “Snow” to be screened at the Kawasaki ShinYuri Film Festival in Sept/ Oct 2009 (JAMI).
Thomson-Canopus Award for Editing Excellence winner - "Meditations on a Name", directed by Bonnie Elliot (Australia Film Television Radio School).
Bonnie receives a copy of EDIUS5, the latest video editing software (courtesy of Thomson-Canopus).
Kodak Audience Award winner (as voted by the audience) - "The Strength to Live", directed by Fumiko Sanada (Japan Academy of Moving Images).
Fumiko receives a trophy, $200 prize money and 2000ft of 16mm film (all courtesy of Kodak).
All finalists also received certificates from the Japan Foundation. |
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| 2 December 2008 |
| The Japanese Film Festival supports HammondCare |
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This year, the Japanese Film Festival will be screening Memories of Tomorrow as a part of its 2008 program starring Ken Watanabe. In the film, Watanabe plays a 49-year-old man diagnosed with an early onset of Alzheimer’s. We follow his and his wife’s struggles as he combats the disability daily.
HammondCare is an independent Christian charity specialising in aged and dementia care. The Japanese Film Festival is proud to support HammondCare in raising awareness of the disease by donating 50 free tickets to HammondCare and their affiliates for Sydney’s screening of Memories of Tomorrow at 1pm on Sunday 7 December.
As a special guest at this screening, we gladly welcome Professor Richard Fleming B.Tech (Hons) Dip. Clin. Psy., the Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre, a division of the HammondCare Group, to share with us the current state of dementia in NSW, along with an opportunity for donations to be made to support the work of HammondCare. |
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| 1 December 2008 |
| Melbourne kicks off with a bang! |
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| Melbourne has kicked-off its inaugural year of the Japanese Film Festival and by all reports, it has been a resounding success! This will whet the appetites for Sydneysiders who no longer have to wait. With one sleep to go, the much-anticipated opening film, “After School” will head a line-up of 17 quality films for this year’s festival over the span of 8 exciting days. |
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| Tickets selling fast! |
| Sydney tickets for the opening and closing films, “After School” and “Departures” are selling like hot cakes so get in quick before they are sold out. Tickets for other films are also selling very well so avoid the disappointment and reserve your seats now! |
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| 25 November 2008 |
| One week to go! |
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| Just a reminder that with a week to go, be quick to secure your seat. Tickets are selling fast and with reserved seating this year, we recommend that you buy your tickets early! Look out for us at our information booth at Greater Union. See you at the cinema! |
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| Great news for all you Sydneysiders! |
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| The box office at Greater Union, Sydney is now open from 9.30am – 9.00pm everyday for the whole duration of the Japanese Film Festival to purchase your tickets. It is now more convenient for you to snap up those tickets! To avoid disappointment and the rush, get in there early! |
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| 20 November 2008 |
| Attention everyone 15yrs and over! |
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Great news! We have just had clearance from the Classification Board that the 18+ restriction rating has been lifted to a 15+ rating for the following films:
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This means that if you missed out before due to the standard film festival 18+ restriction, and is aged 15 years and over, you can now see MORE films at the 2008 Japanese Film Festival.
So what are you waiting for? Go and secure your tickets now! |
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| 7 November 2008 |
| School visit to Hula Girls! |
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| Attention teachers and students. The task sheets for both junior secondary and senior secondary students are up and ready to be downloaded.
We hope you enjoy the film and good luck with the questions! |
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| 5 November 2008 |
| This year’s programs are in! |
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| With a brand new look and design, this year’s Japanese Film Festival programs are ready to be distributed. Keep an eye out for it at various venues around the city and you can also pick up a copy at our Japan Foundation office here in Sydney. |
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| 5 November 2008 |
| Less than a month to go! |
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With the much-anticipated 12th Japanese Film Festival fast approaching, make sure you grab your tickets early. We are expecting a bumper turn out this year and with a quality line-up of films from all genres, it will surely provide wonderful entertainment for people of all ages and tastes. So bring your family and friends along and see you at the cinema!
Tickets go on sale in Melbourne from 1st November and Sydney from 10th November. Click here for more details.
Stay tuned and remember to continually check our website for the latest updates! |
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| 20 October 2008 |
| Exciting news flash!! |
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With our recent Melbourne expansion, we gladly welcome not one, but two very special guests from Japan to our festival this year.
Visiting Melbourne is Director Hiroshi Sugawara of the wistful war story, Forget-Me-Not starring the talented and moving Ruriko Asaoka.
Sydney will receive Minoru Kawasaki, Director of two cult films premiering in Sydney: the absurdly hilarious murder mystery, Executive Koala, and a space-invading political satire, Monster X Strikes Back featuring the 1960s beloved monster, Guilala.
Our special guests will be available for Q&A sessions at selected screenings. Please check the schedule for further information. |
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| 13 October 2008 |
| Our official 2008 Japanese Film Festival program is finally unveiled!! |
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Both Melbourne and Sydney open with Kenji Uchida's puzzling suspenseful drama/comedy After School. This complex plot will send your minds reeling into motion as things begin to unravel, revealing a cleverly made story line with a surprising twist that will wow audiences.
Closing the festival will be Yojiro Takita's award-winning film Departures, which also happens to be Japan’s official contender for the 2009 Academy Awards' foreign language film category. Until our own 'departure' comes, we will eventually say goodbye to our deceased loved ones. This touching masterpiece will evoke powerful emotions from laughter to tears. |
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| 1 October 2008 |
| Welcome to the 12th Japanese Film Festival! |
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Returning for the 12th year, expect nothing but the best of contemporary Japanese cinema. The latest blockbuster hits, engaging dramas, hilarious comedies, enthralling romances and valiant samurai action are all coming your way very, very soon!
For the first time in Japanese Film Festival history, Melbourne-ites will be thrilled to know that the Japanese Film Festival will be hitting the city with 13 quality films over five mind-blowing days.
Sydney-siders can look forward to another spectacular year of 18 stellar films and the Australia-Japan Student Film Forum showcasing the best short films from Australian and Japanese students.
Melbourne
27 November - 1 December
ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Sydney
2 December - 9 December
Greater Union, George Street
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