Twenty selected films, TV and anime projects are set to benefit from an inaugural Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, TGFM designed by the Tokyo International Film Festival’s annual content market, TIFFCOM to assist Japanese and international producers.
The inaugural TGFM will take place between November 4 and 6th, 2020 midway through the Tokyo Film Festival, which remains scheduled to take place from October 31 to November 9, 2020.
The Tokyo International Film Festival’s annual content market, TIFFCOM, revealed that it launched the new program to help Japanese and international producers secure financing for film, TV and anime projects by matching 20 selected projects with financiers from around the globe.
The organizers stressed that they are aiming to match high-caliber, 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.
According to the organiser, TGFM is open only to fictional works, and 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.
Although organizers are proceeding at full speed, the fate of Tokyo’s film festival and market will depend on whether the coronavirus pandemic is significantly contained by November.
On Thursday, Japan’s government extended a nationwide state of emergency until the end of May. Nearly all cinemas in the country are closed and film and television production have ground to a halt.
