| 2026-06-11 | | | Call for Yamagata Rough Cut! in Tokyo & Fukui Participants |
“Yamagata Rough Cut!”, a program launched as part of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, invites participants to gather and watch together unfinished 15-minute footage of rough, urgent images captured from deeply personal perspectives, and to engage in dialogue around them. The program will select two projects from Japan and two from elsewhere in Asia.
“Yamagata Rough Cut!” began in 2013. Two years earlier, following the Great East Japan Earthquake, many of us could only encounter the series of events through moving images. Those footages were expressing what we could not directly experience. This led us to rethink how we receive, interpret, and speak about images.
Emerging from that experience, this program creates a space where roughcuts—unfinished moving images—are viewed together with audiences. When images produced in different regions are brought into the same space, the contexts and meanings attached to the footage are loosened or released. When people from different backgrounds face the same images, multiple ways of seeing emerge. Rather than attempting to close these gaps, Yamagata roughcut! becomes a place where we have access to the inherent possibilities of the images together with others.
This year, “Yamagata Rough Cut! in Tokyo” will be held as part of “Documentary Dream Show—Yamagata in Tokyo,” the festival organized in Tokyo during the interim years of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. In addition, “Yamagata Rough Cut! in Fukui” will be presented in collaboration with the Fukui Cultural Center.
By creating opportunities for dialogue around Roughcut in these two locations, we hope to open up new possibilities for filmmaking—fostering stronger networks among participants and encouraging regional co-productions. Filmmakers, critics, researchers, audiences, and people from all backgrounds are warmly invited to join this space for dialogue beyond conventional roles and boundaries.
Entry Regulations
- [Eligibility]
- This program is for film projects by filmmakers from or living in Asia
- The entered rough cut must be no longer than 15 minutes
- The filmmaker must attend a pre-meeting with the Coordinators in advance of the program
- The filmmaker must attend the program in Tokyo and Fukui (from mid-October to mid-November). (Travel and accommodation covered.)
- [Submissions]
- Submitted footage should be no longer than 15 minutes (Please send us an online link, later to be downloadable)
- Stills or frame shots must also be submitted
- Send us the following entry information:
- Name of applicant
- Address of applicant
- Contact (phone and email)
- Place of filming
- Year of filming
- Anything you would like to tell us about your footage (free form)
- What are your expectations in taking part in this program?
Submissions via Google Form:
Apply for Yamagata Rough Cut! in Tokyo & Fukui
- [Deadline]
- July 13 (Mon), 2026 (by midnight Japan time)
[Notification]- All applicants will be notified of the results by the beginning of August 2026. Dialogue and narration lists will be required for selected projects at this time, to prepare for simulcast translation into Japanese.
[Inquiry]- Yamagata Rough Cut! YIDFF Tokyo Office
No.3 Yamada Bldg. 6fl., 22 Aizumicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0005 JAPAN
e-mail: roughcut@tokyo.yidff.jp
phone: 81-3-5362-0672 fax: 81-3-5362-0670