The Pia Film Festival returns to Tokyo’s Shibuya Tokyu and Eurospace cinemas from July 14-20, featuring its usual mix of works from up-and-coming filmmakers vying for the PFF Award, new indies and retrospectives. It’s a great opportunity to catch emerging talent before they go on to bigger things, especially the winner of the PFF Scholarship who receives funding to make their first feature. Previous winners include Sono Sion (”Suicide Club”), Kumakiri Kazuyoshi (”Hole in the Sky”), Lee Sang-il (”Hula Girls”), Ogigami Naoko (”Kamome Diner”), and Uchida Kenji (”A Stranger of Mine”) - not a bad pedigree at all.
Unfortunately the fest doesn’t offer English-subtitled screenings, but this year it’ll be paying tribute to the late Robert Altman including some of his films that have never been screened before in Japan: “Images”, “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, and “Secret Honor”. You can read more about the festival on their shiny new English website. Cool poster, don’t you think?