This year’s Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be happening in a few weeks and all but three of the two dozen movies being screened are premieres for international or Canadian audiences.
The festival runs from June 6- 20.
Starting in 2011, the film festival, run by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, has gained recognition from Japanese directors. Some of them have even been in the audience for the screening.
James Heron, the Executive Director of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre watches over 80 movies. This gets whittled down to 24.
With the majority of the films making their premier outside of Japan, the films have English subtitles. Heron says that when he goes to Japan he makes a point of touching base with distribution companies to help secure films for the festival. A good relationship with distribution companies is an advantage because they are usually the part of the production chain which adds the subtitles.
