A passion for film festivals made it possible to hold the festival in two cities.

Access Cinema, an Irish film and cultural organization, has been organizing the Japanese Film Festival since 2008 with the cooperation of the Japanese Embassy in Ireland. The festival has become a major film festival in Ireland, with its own selection of films touring to many cities each year. Access Cinema's director Maeve Cook visited Japan in 2019 to visit the festival and build a new network with many Japanese film directors, producers and distributors in preparation for this year's festival. A special program for Galway 2020 was also planned for this year's event, but due to the pandemic lockdown across Ireland, the originally planned April event was postponed. In the meantime, despite seeing the success of other online projects, the festival, which emphasizes the experience of watching films in theaters, took time out from the repeated lockdowns to downsize and screen 10 films in two cities, Cork and Galway. The decision to go ahead with the festival under the current circumstances was greeted with great joy by the citizens of Cork and Galway, who are living with the restrictions of everyday life. The festival with original plan in Galway and other cities has been postponed to 2021. Preparations are now steadily underway.

 

Date: 25 Sep.~4 Oct.2020
Venue: Gate Cinema (Cork, Ireland, 25-29 Sep.)
Palas Cinema (Galway, Ireland, 2-4 Oct.)
Film:
1) "Book Paper Scissors" by Nanako Hirose
2) "Children of the Sea" by Ayumu Watanabe
3) "Complicity" by Kei Chikaura
4) "Dance With Me" by Shinobu Yaguchi
5) "Every Day A Good Day" by Tatsushi Omori
6) "Fly Me To Saitama" by Hideki Takeuchi
7) "Hausu" by Nobuhiko Obayashi
8) "Melancholic" by Seiji Tanaka
9) "Ride Your Wave" by Masaaki Yuasa
10) "Tampopo" by Juzo Itami

 

WA Cafe Competition
Date: 1 ~　2 Oct.2020
Venue: Wa Cafe (Galway, Ireland)