JAPAN HITS VENICE WITH IMMERSIVE PROJECTS AND FEATURES AS IT MAKES INROADS INTO GLOBAL CO-PRODUCTIONS

Japan is one country in focus at the Venice Production Bridge, with Wallonia-Brussels & Luxembourg also under the spotlight. Projects with Japanese directors, producers and backers, in various combinations, can be found in both, however.

These projects will participate in the VPB's Venice Gap-Financing Market (Aug. 30-Sept. 1), whose selected projects must have 70% of their financing secured. To find the missing 30%, filmmakers and producers will have one-on-one meetings with decision-makers, from financiers to post-production houses.

Also under the VPB aegis is the Book Adaptation Rights Market (Aug. 30-Sept. 1). Thirty international publishing houses and literary agencies will participate, as will two Japanese publishers as part of Focus Japan with the support of Japan External Trade Organization.

VPB selects two focuses for each edition, one European and one international. A big reason Japan landed the latter slot, says VPB head Pascal Diot, is that Japan and Italy have recently signed a film co-production agreement.

"I thought it could be a good opportunity to showcase Japanese projects and talents within our Venice Production Bridge and especially our Venice Gap-Financing Market," he explains.

Another deciding factor for Diot: "Japan is producing immersive works which are one of the strong components of the VPB. Japan will have a stand on our Venice Immersive Island and will be able to present Japanese immersive works to both the professionals and the public."

And, he says, "Japan still needs to attract international co-productions and the VPB is the place to be for this.

"Among the projects in the Japan Focus, which VPB is presenting in cooperation with JETRO, is Kazuki Yuhara's "First Virtual Suit." Tokyo-based production house CinemaLeap calls it an "immersive interactive experience that utilizes MR and VR technologies." Users will don a Meta Quest 3×4 headset to join the quest of a high school boy in near future Japan to find his own avatar - and discover who he really is through music and dance.

CinemaLeap rep Tetsuya Ohashi explains that "First Virtual Suit" "has already re-ceived part of its total budget from Japan's ministry of economy, trade and industry."

CinemaLeap is also at VPB to find foreign production and exhibition partners for what Ohashi describes as a work for "people worldwide, not only within Japan."

"We believe that collaborating with creators and studios from various countries could result in better work that resonates with people globally," he adds.

Another Japan Focus project is German filmmaker Eva Knopf's "hybrid" documentary "Movie Kintsugi," inspired by the Japanese craft of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired using lacquer, gold dust and other materials. Knopf plans to incorporate fragments of a 1920s silent film by Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu into the story of a young woman in contemporary Tokyo.

"We feel that VPB is the best place to announce our project to the international industry and seek the partners we need to move it forward," says Ryohei Tsutui, a rep from the film's Japanese production partner Trixta.

VPB is also hosting a Sept. 1 panel on animation co-productions between Japan and Europe organized in cooperation with the Annecy Animation Film Festival's MIFA market. Speakers include executives from Japanese production and distribution company Asmik-Ace and animation house Dwarf Studios.

International co-productions are uncommon in Japan's insular industry, where production partners are typically domestic media companies. They account for all Japan Focus projects, however: "Automatically, selected projects are co-productions or potential ones," says Diot. "That's why you have those Japanese co-productions. We do hope they will meet the right decision-makers to complete their budgets."