The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari

Yubari, Hokkaido

is a city in Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō, Japan.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 12,068. The total area is 763.20 km². Hemmed in by mountains Yūbari stretches for 25 kilometers along a mountain valley....

 on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Film Festival.

History

In 1990, the last coal mine in the Hokkaidō mining town of Yūbari having closed, the city leaders were looking for a way to revitalize the local economy. This was the beginning of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. The festival was divided into two main programs, a prestigious international competition for young directors, and an Off Theatre program for mostly Japanese amateur, independent and first-time directors. The first year in 1990 had as a special guest, actor Jon Voight

Jon Voight

Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....

 and his daughter, a young starlet named Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...

. In 1993, Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

 was at the festival and wrote part of the screenplay for Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction (film)

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...

in his hotel room. Some years later, he paid homage to the town in the name of a character in Kill Bill Vol. 1, "Gogo Yubari". In 1996 the festival also had special guest stars, comedians Steve Martin

Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....

 and Martin Short

Martin Short

Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

. In 2004 the festival drew a record audience of 27,000.

The festival had always been sponsored financially by the city of Yubari but the town filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and that year's festival had to be cancelled. However, the people of Yubari with the assistance of a number of sponsors were able to group together to revive the festival in 2008. The international competition section of the festival had to be dropped but the Off Theatre program for young Japanese directors was retained with the Grand Prize bringing 2 million yen (about $20,000) to the winner. The new Governor's Award was presented by the Governor of Hokkaidō. In addition to the competition section, the festival continued to screen a number of international films by promising directors. One of the sponsors for the festival is the giant Japanese satellite broadcasting company SKYPerfecTV! which has also broadcasted parts of the program. The scaled down 2008 festival drew more than 8800 fans and attendance increased to over 10,500 in 2009.

1990 Awards

Held February 14-18, 1990.

• Grand Prize

Ofelas – Director: Nils Gaup

Nils Gaup

-Career:Gaup was born in Kautokeino, Finnmark County in Northern Norway. He first intended to become an athlete but from 1974 to 1978 he went to drama school and studied at the Beaivváš Sámi Theatre in Kautokeino...

• Special Prize

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds

Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds is a 1989 post-apocalyptic Australian film directed by Alex Proyas.The film was shot on location near Broken Hill, New South Wales and at Supreme Studios Sydney.-Cast:* Michael Lake as Felix Crabtree...

– Director: Alex Proyas

Alex Proyas

Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Takeshita Performance Higei Mito-Komon – Director: Sinya Takesita

• Special Prize

Gig – Director: Kosuke Ienaga

• Toroma Prize

Meilin Adventure – Director: Satoshi Imai

1991 Awards

Held February 15-19, 1991.

• Grand Prize

Miracle in Valby (Miraklet i Valby) – Director: Åke Sandgren

Åke Sandgren

Åke Sandgren is a Swedish-Danish film director and screenwriter. He has written and directed a number of films in a variety of genres, mostly in Denmark where he now lives.-Biography:...

• Special Jury Prize

Windwalker

Windwalker

Windwalker was a four-piece rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia who were active from 1990 to 1993.The band recorded one album, Rainstick and contributed songs to three compilations: a cover of Ministry's "Burning Inside" on The Mint Is A Terrible Thing To Taste ; a cover of Donovan's "The...

– Director: Kieth Merrill

Kieth Merrill

Kieth W. Merrill is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967...

• Critic's Award

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing is a 1990 American gangster film by the Coen brothers and starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito and John Turturro...

– Director: Joel Coen

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Death Express – Director: Hiroyuki Terada

• Jury Prize

Rice Game – Director: Hideaki Kobayashi

1992 Awards

Held February 14-18, 1992.

• Grand Prize

The Swordsman in Double Flag Town – Director: He Ping

He Ping

He Ping is a Chinese film director, whose main filmography consists of a hybrid genre of Western-wuxia movies. He made three movies along this genre - Swordsmen in Double Flag Town , Sun Valley and Warriors of Heaven and Earth .He is an ethnic Manchu whose ancestors were members of the Blue...

• Special Jury Prize

A Demon in My View

A Demon in My View

A Demon in my View is a novel by British author Ruth Rendell. First published in 1976, it won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year, gaining Rendell the first of six Dagger awards she received during her career, more than any other writer....

– Director: Petra Haffter

• Critic's Award

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is a 1992 Japanese science fiction/horror film directed byShinya Tsukamoto. It is a bigger-budget reworking of the same director's 1989 movie Tetsuo: The Iron Man, utilizing similar themes and ideas to the earlier film Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is a 1992 Japanese science...

– Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Shinya Tsukamoto

is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.-Biography:Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Diamonds Moon – Director: Akira Nobi

• Jury Prize

Kappas – Director: Katsuya Ohsawa

1993 Awards

Held February 19-23, 1993.

• Grand Prize

Children of Nature

Children of Nature

Children of Nature is a 1991 Icelandic film directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. A man becomes too old to run his farm and he is made unwelcome in his daughter and son-in-law's urban dwelling. Dumped in a home for the elderly, he meets an old girlfriend from his youth, and they elope to the wilds...

– Director: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson

• Special Jury Prize

Winds of God – Director: Yoko Narahashi

• Critic's Award

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...

– Director: Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Trash – Director: Naoki Kubo

• Jury Prize

My Daddy Long Legs – Director: Shin Yasuhara

1994 Awards

Held February 18-22, 1994.

• Grand Prize

Killing Zoe

Killing Zoe

Killing Zoe is a 1994 film, written and directed by Roger Avary. The story details a safe cracker named Zed who returns to France to aid an old friend in performing a doomed bank heist...

– Director: Roger Roberts Avary

Roger Avary

Roger Avary is a Canadian film and television producer, screenwriter, olive farmer and director in the American mass media industry. He was behind the screenplays of the films Silent Hill and Beowulf...

• Special Jury Prize

C'est arrive pres de chez vous

Man Bites Dog (film)

Man Bites Dog is a darkly comedic crime Belgian mockumentary starring Benoît Poelvoorde. In the film, a crew of filmmakers follow a serial killer, recording his crimes for a documentary they are producing...

– Director: Rémy Belvaux

Rémy Belvaux

Rémy Nicolas Lucien Belvaux was a Belgian actor, director, producer and screenwriter...

 & André Bonzel

• Minami Toshiko Award / Critic's Award

Carne – Director: Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé is an Argentine filmmaker and the son of Argentine painter and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. He graduated from Louis Lumière College and is the visiting professor of film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland...

• The Most Entertaining Award

El Mariachi

El Mariachi

El Mariachi is a 1992 Mexican-American action film that is the debut of writer/director Robert Rodriguez. The Spanish language film was shot in the northern Mexican bordertown of Ciudad Acuña with a mainly amateur cast...

– Director: Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez

Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Family Time – Director: Ryota Kawaguchi

• Jury Prize

My Favorite "Skyline" – Director: Shin Yasuhara

Vending Machine and a Girl – Director: Kiyohide Otani

1995 Awards

Held February 17-21, 1995.

• Grand Prize

Tombés du ciel

Tombés du ciel

Tombés du ciel is a 1994 French film directed by Philippe Lioret. Tombés du ciel won the Grand Prize at the 6th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival held in February 1995.-Cast and roles:...

– Director: Philippe Lioret

• Special Jury Prize

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is a 1993 stop-motion animated film made by bolexbrothers, and funded by the BBC, La Sept, producer Richard Hutchinson and Manga Entertainment, which also distributed the film on video...

– Director: Dave Borthwick

• Minami Toshiko Award

Wizard of Darkness – Director: Shimako Sato

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

The Incredible Haniwa Man – Director: Shin Yasuhara

• Jury Prize

Anatomia Extinction – Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura

Yoshihiro Nishimura

is a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as "a legendary director and effects artist" and "the Tom Savini of Japan" with "talent to burn"...

A Room Without Wind – Director: Ryuta Miyake

1996 Awards

Held February 18-20, 1996.

• Grand Prize

Accumulator 1

Accumulator 1

Accumulator 1 is a 1994 film directed by Jan Svěrák. The film won the Grand Prize at the 7th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1996. Judges at the festival that year included actress Kim Novak and actor-director Mario Van Peebles....

– Director: Jan Svěrák

Jan Sverák

Jan Svěrák is a Czech film director. He is the son of screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák. He studied documentary filmmaking at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague...

• Special Jury Prize

Manneken Pis – Director: Frank Van Passel

• Minami Toshiko Award

Secret Waltz – Director: Akira Nobi

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Brain Holiday – Director: Hineki Mito

• Jury Prize

Blood Red Girls – Director: Daisuke Yamanouchi

• Encouragement Prize

Rest Room – Director: Muneyoshi Murakami

To Be or Not to Be – Director: Tomoko Matsunashi

Tomoko Matsunashi

is a Japanese film director and actress. She was described in 2007 as one of the female Japanese directors who "have brought some needed originality and talent to contemporary Japanese cinema."-Life and career:...

1997 Awards

Held February 14-18, 1997.

• Grand Prize

Closing Time – Director: Masahiro Kobayashi

• Special Jury Prize

Little Sister

Little Sister (1995 film)

Little Sister or Zusje is a 1995 Dutch award-winning comedy film directed by Robert Jan Westdijk. Little Sister earned the Special Jury Prize at the 8th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1997.-Cast:...

– Director: Robert Jan Westdijk

• Minami Toshiko Award

Drive – Director: Steve Wang

Steve Wang

Steve Wang is an award-winning make-up artist and filmmaker.-Biography:Born in Taiwan, he and his parents moved to the US when he was 9. His greatest inspirations were the tokusatsu superhero TV shows Ultraman and Kamen Rider, as well as Hong Kong kung fu films including Master of the Flying...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Party – Director: Mayumi Uchiumi

• Jury Prize

L&D – Director: Hideki Kimura

1998 Awards

Held February 13-17, 1998.

• Grand Prize

Bernie – Director: Albert Dupontel

Albert Dupontel

Albert Dupontel is a French actor and film director. He started his career as a stand-up comedian...

• Jean-Hugues Anglade Award

Detective Riko – Director: Satoshi Isaka

• Adventure Film Prize

The Ground – Director: Atsushi Muroga

• Minami Toshiko Award

Illtown – Director: Nick Gomez

Nick Gomez

Nick Gomez is an American film director and actor. He has directed for a number of television and film studios. He has also acted in a few minor films...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Midnight Three – Director: Yasushi Koshizaka

• Special Jury Prize

Variation for Movements – Director: Yoshinao Sato

• Encouragement Prize

Kurushime Girl – Director: Noboru Iguchi

Noboru Iguchi

is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor. He has worked as a director in adult video as well as in the horror and gore genres.-Life and career:Iguchi was born on June 28, 1969...

1999 Awards

Held February 19-23, 1999.

• Grand Prize

Bandits

Bandits (1997 film)

Bandits is a 1997 German Road Movie and Music-Film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Katja Riemann, Jasmin Tabatabai, Nicolette Krebitz and Jutta Hoffman...

– Director: Katja von Garnier

Katja von Garnier

Katja von Garnier is a German film director.-Biography:From 1989-1994, she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich. Her 1993 practice film Abgeschminkt! was shown in theatres all over Germany and attracted 1.2 million visitors...

• Special Jury Prize / Minami Toshiko Award

Moonlight Whispers

Moonlight Whispers

is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Akihiko Shiota. The film is based on the manga Gekko no sasayaki.Boy meets girl , they fall in love...

– Director: Akihiko Shiota

Akihiko Shiota

is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.-Career:Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Shiota attended Rikkyō University, where he began making 8mm films in the tradition of other Rikkyō students like Kiyoshi Kurosawa...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Tel-Club – Director: Kenji Murakami

• Special Jury Prize

Kiadoryoku REAL – Director: Katsushi Boda

Katsushi Boda

Katsushi Boda is a Japanese stop motion animator. He is most famous for creating the character Robot Palta.While much of his work is for advertisements, he has made several works of independent animation, including Pulsar , Form of Stress and Kiadoryoku REAL...

2000 Awards

Held February 18-22, 2000.

• Grand Prize

Across a Gold Prairie – Director: Isshin Inudou

• Special Jury Prize

Pups – Director: Ash

Ash (director)

Ashley Baron-Cohen is an independent English film-maker also known as simply Ash. He has a bachelor's degree in experimental psychology from Sussex University, and trained as a filmmaker at the Pasadena Art Center...

• Minami Toshiko Award

Jin-Roh – Director: Hiroyuki Okiura

Hiroyuki Okiura

is a Japanese animation director and animator.Okiura, who entered the industry at the age of 16 with no academic background , is known for his detailed effects animation in, for example, the chopper attack scene in Patlabor The Movie 2, and more recently his highly realistic character animation in...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Hazy Life – Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Nobuhiro Yamashita

is a Japanese film director.-Career:Born in Aichi Prefecture, Yamashita attended Osaka University of Arts where he worked on Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's Kichiku Dai Enkai. His graduation film Hazy Life, took the Off Theatre Competition Grand Prize at the 2000 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival...

• Special Jury Prize

Let's Go Strawberry Girl – Director: Shinobu Kuribayashi

2001 Awards

Held February 15-19, 2001.

• Grand Prize

New Year's Day

New Year's Day (film)

New Year's Day is a 2001 comedy-drama film starring Andrew Lee Potts, Bobby Barry, Jacqueline Bisset, Anastasia Hille, Michael Kitchen, Sue Johnston, Ralph Brown and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. It was written by Ralph Brown and directed by Suri Krishnamma....

– Director: Suri Krishnamma

Suri Krishnamma

Suri Krishnamma is a British film director. He has directed several films, including A Man of No Importance, New Year's Day, Locked In and Wuthering Heights. He has won four film festival awards and been nominated for three BAFTA awards.Krishnamma has also directed several episodes of the...

• Special Jury Prize

Animals – Director: Michael Di Jiacomo

• Minami Toshiko Award

Siam Sunset – Director: John Polson

John Polson

John Polson is an Australian actor, director and founder of Tropfest. In February 2001, Polson attended the 12th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Hokkaidō, Japan where his film Siam Sunset won the Minami Toshiko Award...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Tokyo A Go Go – Director: Ryuichi Honda

• Special Jury Prize

L'Ilya – Director: Tomoya Sato

2002 Awards

Held February 14-18, 2002.

• Grand Prize

My Sassy Girl

My Sassy Girl

My Sassy Girl is a 2001 South Korean romantic comedy film directed by Kwak Jae-yong. It tells the story of a man's chance meeting with a drunk girl on the train which changes his life...

– Director: Kwak Jae-yong

Kwak Jae-yong

Kwak Jae-yong is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He studied physics at Kyunghee University. He achieved success with his debut film Watercolor Painting in a Rainy Day in 1989, but the failure of his next two movies led to eight years of unemployment before a comeback with the...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Run! Yamazaki! Run! – Director: Naoko Johnori

• Special Jury Prize

Nuts – Director: Yoko Chukira / Tomokazu / Shu Kageyama

2003 Awards

Held February 13-17, 2003.

• Grand Prize

Battlefield Baseball

Battlefield Baseball

is a 2003 Japanese film directed by Yūdai Yamaguchi. The film is written by Gatarō Man, based on his manga series of the same name, and stars Tak Sakaguchi, Atsushi Itō, and Hideo Sakaki...

(Jigoku Koushien) – Director: Yūdai Yamaguchi

Yūdai Yamaguchi

is a Japanese film director who has worked mainly in the comedy and horror genres. He has "made a name for himself by mixing goofy gore with manga-esque escapades and plain utter weirdness".-Life and career:...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Bijo-can – Director: Masaya Kakei

• Special Jury Prize

Ski Jumping Pairs – Director: Riichiro Mashima

2004 Awards

Held February 19-23, 2004.

• Grand Prize

Mokpo, Gangster's Paradise – Director: Kim Ji-hoon

• Special Jury Prize

Robot Stories

Robot Stories

Robot Stories is a 2003 independent film written and directed by Greg Pak.-Plot:The film consists of four stories in which human characters struggle to connect in a world of robot babies and android office workers...

– Director: Greg Pak

Greg Pak

Greg Pak is an American New York-based film director/comic book writer, known for his work on such books featuring the Hulk.-Early life:Pak is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of the Purple Crayon improv group, and studied history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and film at...

• Minami Toshiko Award

Better Than Sex – Director: Su Chao-pin & Lee Feng-bor

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

The Far East Apartment – Director: Tetsuya Mariko

• Special Jury Prize

Utsu-musume SAYURI – Director: Takashi Kimura

2005 Awards

Held February 24-28, 2005.

• Grand Prize

My Mother, the Mermaid

My Mother, the Mermaid

My Mother, the Mermaid is a 2004 South Korean film about a young woman who quarrels with her mother but is somehow transported back in time and sees her parents' courtship. In her youth, her mother was a haenyeo, a traditional freediver.IMDB claims the literal translation of the title is The...

– Director: Park Heung-shik

Park Heung-shik

Park Heung-shik is a South Korean film director. His credits include I Wish I Had a Wife, My Mother, the Mermaid, and Wedding Campaign, which was the closing film of the 2005 Pusan International Film Festival.-External links:*...

• Special Jury Prize

Innocence

Innocence (2004 film)

Innocence is a 2004 French film written and directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović, based on the novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls by Frank Wedekind, and starring Marion Cotillard. It takes place at a mysterious girls' boarding school, where new students arrive in coffins...

– Director: Lucile Hadžihalilović

Lucile Hadžihalilović

Lucile Hadžihalilović is a French filmmaker. She became the first woman to win the Stockholm International Film Festival annual Bronze Horse award for best film for her 2004 film Innocence....

• Minami Toshiko Award

The Neighbor No. Thirteen – Director: Yasuo Inoue

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Mariko's 30 Pirates – Director: Tetsuya Mariko

• Special Jury Prize

Be the World for Her – Director: Daisuke Hosaka

2006 Awards

Held February 23-27, 2006.

• Grand Prize

Blood Rain – Director: Kim Dae-seung

• Special Jury Prize

Never Belongs to Me – Director: Nam Ki-woong

• Minami Toshiko Award

Citizen Dog

Mah Nakorn

Citizen Dog is a 2004 Thai romance film, directed by Wisit Sasanatieng and based on a story by Wisit's wife, Koynuch , which was illustrated by him...

– Director: Wisit Sasanatieng

Wisit Sasanatieng

Wisit Sasanatieng is a Thai film director and screenwriter of Chinese descent...

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Raw Summer (Nama-natsu) – Director: Keisuke Yoshida

• Special Jury Prize

Hakko – Director: Madoka Kumagai

2008 Awards

Held March 19-23, 2008.

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

– Director: Tsuki Inoue

• Special Jury Prize

– Director: Kouta Yoshida

• Governor's Award

– Director: Kenji Itoso & Hiroshi Kamebuchi

2009 Awards

Held February 26-March 2, 2009.

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

– Director: Yū Irie

Yu Irie

is a Japanese film director / screenwriter born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture and grew up in Fukaya, Saitama prefecture.After a number of short films, including Obsession and Seven Drives which were screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in 2003 and 2004, Irie directed two...

• Special Jury Prize

– Director: Ōhata Hajime

• Governor's Award

– Director: Choi Uian (チェ・ウィアン)

2010 Awards

Held February 25-March 1, 2010.

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

– Director: Yōsuke Okuda

• Special Jury Prize

– Director: Tomoya Maeno

• Governor's Award

– Director: ヒョン・スルウ

• Cinegar Award

– Director: Tomoya Maeno

2011 Awards

Held February 24-28, 2011.

OFF THEATRE COMPETITION

• Grand Prize

Invasion of Alien Bikini (겨울냄새) – Director: Oh Young-Doo

• Special Jury Prize

– Director: Kazuya Ogawa

• Governor's Award

– Director: Takayuki Ishihara

• Cinegar Award

– Director: Kazuya Ogawa