Kyoto International Film Festival

Kyoto has never stopped challenging the cutting edge, while still possessing history and culture. Kyoto is the home of Japanese movies. The Kyoto International Film Festival is held here. I served as the chairperson of the executive committee.

It’s a film festival, but it’s not just a film festival. It’s “Everything - movies, art, and others things.” It’s a festival of everything. The theme this time is “Rise, rise, Kyoto” (Kyoto Agaru Agaru).

It utilizes the entire city of Kyoto. The opening is held at Nijo Castle, a World Heritage site and National Treasure. Nishihongan-ji, Daikaku-ji, the Kyoto city office, the Kyoto national museum, Rissei elementary school, the Noh theater, Fujii Daimaru, Aeon, everywhere.

The greatest feature of this event is having everyone participate. It’s a festival in which everyone participates and creates, including people in cinema, people in the arts, people from the administrative and industrial worlds, student groups, children, and a large number of entertainers.

This year, the former site of Rissei elementary school in Kiyamachi is again being used for art exhibitions.

Kitty will do anything. There is a lot to learn from this attitude.

The centerpiece of the square in front of City Hall is Hideo Nagai’s “Throw it with your belly button.”

Naomi Watanabe’s exhibition is at Aeon Mall KYOTO. It’s the world view of Watanabe, the Insta Queen who has also gained popularity overseas. There’s a long line.

The foreign press delved into internationalism. Events in Kyoto become international even if they are left as they are, so I believe that the challenge is demonstrating even stronger internationalism. However, I don’t want to make it an industrial transmission like a regular film festival, but rather a type in which people from overseas can participate.

There was a question from CNN at the press conference. “What is the mainstay this time?”

“Everything” - movies, art, and others things; “everywhere” – north, south, east, and west of Kyoto; and a type in which “everyone” can participate. I answered that we established these three points.

“Won’t scattering everything, everywhere, and everyone dilute the core?”

I replied that the core was “expressing Kyoto.” The “all”-ness of the classical culture to the advanced technology, the “all”-ness of World Heritage Sites and pop art and gags at City Hall, the culture of participation of the nobility and local leaders, I want to show the whole Kyoto which has not yet been shown completely domestically and abroad.