20/10/2008

For the first time ever, the UK Film Council (UKFC) has taken a group of British film companies to participate in the ongoing Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Tokyo Film and Content Market (TIFFCOM), with support from UK Trade and Investment.

The British companies are Film and Music Entertainment, Headline Pictures, Screen West Midlands, Velvet Octopus, Independent and Starfield Productions.

Japan is the UK’s largest export market outside of Europe and the US, worth nearly £4 billion to the exchequer. In addition, Japan is the world’s second most lucrative film market after the US. The value of the Japanese film market is estimated to be around £4.3 billion. The British presence this year aims to enhance the growing market share of UK films at the Japanese box office.

British films chosen for the TIFF are The Other Boleyn Girl [+see also:
trailer
film profile], In the Shadow of the Moon, Happy-Go-Lucky [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Hunger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Hastings-Smith Rob…
interview: Steve McQueen
film profile], The Meerkats and Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Meanwhile, Europa Cinemas has won €700,000 from MEDIA International to extend its cinema network across the world in 2009. The scheme will provide financial incentives to 148 cinemas across 19 non-EU countries to show more UK and European films, including six Japanese multiplexes, Indian chain Reliance Adlabs, and the Korean Film Council’s group of cinemas.

Sarah McKenzie, Senior Executive of Export Development at the UKFC, said, “The events provide excellent opportunities for the UK film industry to form stronger links and beneficial relationships with the Japanese market. We will also be celebrating the success of the forthcoming international extension of the Europa Cinemas network which will help more and more people across the world to see more UK films.”