Blog: Film festivals

About JSFF

JSFF is a 9 years lasting bi-City annual film festival recognized for its immersive themed cultural exchange platform premiering in Tokyo and Belgrade. This year, JSFF is part of the official ECoC (EU Capital of Culture) program at Novi Sad 2022, containing 6 days of condensed film and collateral art program, after which the screenings in Tokyo and Belgrade will be conducted. All authors of selected pieces will have the opportunity to be screened in front of a large audience under the light of ECoC in Novi Sad from November 5th – 10th.

JSFF 2022 THEME: CULTFRONTATION
"Space between two frames"

It is not wrong to say that the film industry as we know it today would not exist without the mutual influences of different cultures. Only one example of such artistic complementarity can be seen in the work of Fumio Kamei, who applied the editing techniques he acquired abroad in the format of haiku poetry, giving more importance and space to shots between the work itself.

In the spirit of the traditional concept of JSFF as a format of cultural exchange of film representatives of two cultures, CULTFRONTATION aims to further confront the author's views in the domain of the program category "Other? Europe". This category refers to the "culture of the different". By re-examining the dominant values in European culture and art, we come to the discovery of different, alternative, marginalized, minority, rebellious expressions.

For the first time since its founding, JSFF will expand the program into 3 categories united by the theme CULTFRONTATION:

1. JSFF - Will maintain the original selection of the films produced in Japan or Serbia (including conditional exceptions regarding the filming and crew background), which will present the views of authors on annual theme CULTFRONTATION, but also contemporary social phenomena in the spirit of "Other? Europe" program narrative of NOVI SAD 2022 - ECoC.

2. EAST ASIA – WEST BALKANS - According to the principle of traditional JSFF format, EA-WB will expand the field of CULTFRONTATION to the regional level which will screen works from the group of EA (East Asia) countries, as well as the countries of the Western Balkans.

3. JSFF - INTERNATIONAL - Global selection of films around the world that deal with the broader aspect of cultural confrontation. One of the terms of cultural confrontation implies confronting the values of an adaptable cultural environment with an extremely protective cultural environment. Also, every kind of re-examination of the canon, generalization, position in society, etc. it can be interpreted as a kind of CULTFRONTATION.

Special attention to:
- Premiere (All categories)
- ECOC Area background (JSFF INTERNATIONAL Category): 2023: Elefsina (Greece), Veszprém (Hungary) and Timisoara (Romania); 2024: Bad Ischl (Austria), Tartu (Estonia) and Bodø (Norway)