> About YIDFF

About YIDFF

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Meeting the World at a Celebration of Cinema
—About the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival

Yamagata has a long tradition of film culture rooted in the local community, and in October 1989, the first Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Yamagata City. As the first international documentary film festival in Asia, it spearheaded a huge era to come. Documentary filmmaker Ogawa Shinsuke (1935–1992), one of the leaders of postwar Japanese documentary film, was at the time based in Kaminoyama City, neighboring to Yamagata City. He became deeply involved from the preparatory stages of the festival, and called upon volunteers from within and outside the prefecture to participate in organizing the festival. The active engagement of citizens became the foundation of the spirit of YIDFF, where government and local community join forces to achieve shared goals.

YIDFF was operated by an Executive Committee in tandem with Yamagata City until 2006, when the festival transferred to a non-governmental status and made a new start as an independent organization. It became a Certified NPO in 2013. In 2017, Yamagata City was admitted to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of Film, receiving recognition for YIDFF and for its efforts in using creativity and visual culture as a driver for urban development.

Held every two years in odd-numbered years, the Festival not only presents a wide variety of films from around the world, but also provides a place for cultural exchange among people, to foster an international community open to future potential. The heated and sharp discussions that follow film screenings are a Yamagata specialty, and occasionally lead to new alliances among filmmakers. Many of the films presented here are new works that are yet to be seen elsewhere, and the two competition sections which have a reputation for their selection, the International Competition and New Asian Currents, attract the attention not only of film festival programmers from around the world, but also of many film professionals in Japan who are looking for new titles for commercial distribution. The Grand Prize winners of both competitions are eligible to submit for the following year's U.S. Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature consideration.

Exciting encounters with new forms of cinema and people is what attracts over 22,000 visitors from across Japan and film professionals from around the world to this verdant town located among the mountains of northern Japan. The economic impact of each festival on Yamagata City and neighboring regions is also significant and growing.

 

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Contact

• Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (NPO) (Yamagata Office)
  #201, 9-52 Kinomi-cho, Yamagata City 990-0044 JAPAN
  phone: 81-23-666-4480 fax: 81-23-625-4550 e-mail: info@yidff.jp
• YIDFF Tokyo Office
  No.3 Yamada Bldg. 6fl., 22 Aizumicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0005 JAPAN
  phone: 81-3-5362-0672 fax: 81-3-5362-0670 e-mail: mail@tokyo.yidff.jp