The tenth JSFF – Japanese-Serbian film festival promoting the culture of the two countries has wrapped up in Tokyo. Next year, this festival will be held in Osaka in the Serbian pavilion as part of the Expo2025 exhibition. The Embassy of Serbia in Tokyo has organized a reception for all the participants of the festival, who were welcomed by the first advisor Marija Perišić as well as the JSFF founders: executive director Jovana Stević, Noah, program director Jakša Nikodijević and the jury president, British director Peter Webber.
This year’s theme for the festival was Duration, and it had an outstanding response from the Japanese audience at the Uplink Cinema in Kichijoji, Tokyo. Renowned Japanese director Shuichi Okita, whose film The Fish Tale won the Nikola Stojanović Legacy Award, was also a guest of the festival. The film about single mothers in Japan The Ones Left Behind by Rionne McAvoy especially intrigued the public, and the author himself thanked the organizers for paying attention to this topic.
The Japanese audience had the opportunity to see several award-winning Serbian feature films for the first time: Nina Ognjanović’s Where the Road Leads, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist by Siniša Cvetić, Have you Seen This Woman by Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluščević, as well as the short films Čuvam te Mimi Vlaović, 5/3/0 by Danilo Stanimirović, The Last Act by Una Bojić, That Damned Father’s Camera by Miloš Tomić, Fitness Jim by Ognjen Isailović and Life After Death by Ognjen Petković, which won the award for the best Serbian short film given by the Japanese jury.
During the festival, two panels were held on the topic of international film co-productions. In the first panel, Serbia was presented as an attractive location for filming with professional resources and a national strategy for film projects. On the second panel, award-winning film professionals talked about strategies and needs for creating a better base for improving cooperation between the cultures of Serbia and Japan. The winners and guests of the festival in Tokyo were presented with paintings by the Serbian architect and artist Marko Muždeka, which he specially designed by combining the themes of various films with the themes of his works.