International Competition
When selecting the International Competition films, the YIDFF narrows down the lineup through a series of discussions. A Selection Committee, acting under the authority of the Organizing Committee, decides on the films. This year, for the first time, citizens were involved from the initial stages of pre-selection. A total of eleven committee members, including four citizens of Yamagata City and festival office staff from Tokyo and Yamagata, selected the films.
Each member of the committee spent considerable time watching the films, each of whose director had invested considerable time and effort into his or her film. For months, we spent weekday evenings watching films from the time we got off work until the time we went to sleep; on weekends, we were in front of the video screen literally around the clock. During these months, we communicated with each other by e-mail and fax to review, question, and criticize the films. We also accessed information from the Internet to use as data for meetings.
A new print or video of each of the fifteen competition selections has been purchased and subtitled in English and Japanese by YIDFF for screening at the festival. These works will be viewed at the festival by judges sitting in the theater along side festival guests, and on the last day of the festival, all of the prizes and awards of merit will be presented in the main theater.
—Miyazawa Hiraku