TIFFCOM, the rights market that sits alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival, is celebrating its return to an in-person format for the first time since 2019, with a move to another venue and the launch of the new Tokyo Story Market.
The three-day market (Oct. 25-27) will relocate from Ikkebukuro to the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center (aka Hamamatsucho-Kan) in Hamamatsucho district. Organizers say that makes it easily accessible from the airports and Shinkansen stations and puts the market closer to the film festival which relocated in 2021 to the Hibiya-Ginza area.
The Tokyo Story Market will specialize in business negotiations for film and audiovisual adaptations of original works (stories) including manga (Japanese comics) and novels. It is expected to include the participation of leading Japanese publishers including Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan. The buyers are expected to be audiovisual producers.
The Tokyo Gap Financing Market will be held for the fourth time, but only the first in physical form. Like other project markets, it offers producers one-on-one meetings with producers, sales agents, distributors, financiers and broadcasters seeking projects to invest in. The market specifies that projects must have 60% of the total budget secured and have an Asia-related element.
This year, 15 have been selected. They include four projects from Japanese filmmakers Tsutsumi Yukihiko (“20th Century Boys,” “Trick”); Shiraishi Kazuya (“The Blood of Wolves,” “Sea of Revival”); Matsui Daigo; and Okabe Junya with the live-action version of “Getter Robo.” Projects from overseas include “The Thonglor Kids,” by Thailand’s Aditya Assarat, “Solo,” by India’s Suman Sen and “The Fox King,” by Malaysia’s Woo Ming Jing.
The market will also return to a physical format for a masterclass and pitching contest, organized with Hollywood s Motion Picture Association and Digital Hollywood University; an exploration of the overseas distribution success of hit animation feature “Suzume”; and a breakdown of the global strategies of Toei Animation.
