唐津国際映画祭 (4)

Festival start: 08 July 2025      Festival end: 13 July 2025

About KIFF

The 4th edition of the Karatsu International Film Festival will run from 8th - 13th July, 2025 in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture.

KIFF is organized by THEATER ENYA, a cinema which revived after 22 years in Karatsu City. Guiding the next generation of film people, bridging between filmmakers -Our mission is making a place to meet and discover films around the world, as well as sharing the possibility of the visual culture with people through the film festival in Karatsu.

For the main competition section, the submissions are open to feature films, short films, and documentary films. Some of the winners will be given KIFF’s support through our scholarship programme, creating opportunities overseas/domestic distribution.

During the festival, KIFF offers screenings, lectures, discussions, and workshops around films. We also host welcome events for international filmmakers “The Omotenashi programme” to provide their new experiences of Japanese culture and make some opportunities to meet people.

Location

Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture is a historic castle town surrounded by the beautiful sea in the northwest of the Kyushu region of Japan. A treasure trove of ingredients blessed with nature here, and you can enjoy gastronomy unique to Japan. This city is a place where traditional arts and crafts are still alive, and is known for its local pottery and the annual Karatsu Kunchi festival* which has a history of over 400 years.

*was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.

History of THEATER ENYA

Since we were founded in 2010,THEATER ENYA also has an aspect as a company which is working to breathe new life into our hometown through its cultural heritages.

In 2017, we collaborated with one of Japan’s master film directors Nobuhiko Obayashi to film HANAGATAMI set in Karatsu and won the Grand Prix at the 72nd Mainichi Film Awards. This film was invited to international film festivals in over 20 countries.

In 2019, we finally revived a cinema after 22 years in Karatsu. Thereafter we operate the theater and manage departments of film festival, film commission, and cultural tourism.

Last but not least, THEATER ENYA was selected as “10 of Japanese independent cinemas” by The Japanese Foundation in 2023. Here is our short documentary subtitled in 10 languages to get closer to the festival location, our hometown, and who we are. Please take a look.

THEATER ENYA (Saga, JAPAN) - MINI THEATER JOURNEY【DE/EN/ES/FR/ID/IT/TH/简中/繁中/JP】
https://youtu.be/Yf9aIax9Wyc?si=VFJhj5eD7sShLnId

Regardless of whether the name is known or unknown, whether the budget is large or small, we are looking forward to meeting films you made wholeheartedly!

Cash Prizes: 3,600$

○Grand Prix: Pandre Award, 200,000 yen

○Best Feature Film (Fiction, 55 minutes or more): 100,000 yen

○Best Medium Feature Film (20-55 minutes): 100,000 yen

○Best Short Film (20 minutes or less): 100,000 yen

○Best Documentary Film: 100,000 yen

○Best Director

○Best Screenplay

○Best Cinematography

○Best Actor (Both genders)

○Best Supporting Actor (Both genders)

○Best New Director (for directors who have made up to their second feature film)

○Audience Award

○Karatsu Locating Award (Awarded to outstanding works that use Karatsu City as a location)

○Theater Enya Award (Awarded to directors who we feel would like to support in their feature film production, with a scholarship of 3 million yen for their next film and support for the film commission in Karatsu)

○Filmination Award (We will realize the overseas sales of the winning works. As a supplementary prize, we will provide AI translation, subtitle file creation (SRT format), and application to AmazonUS.This award is only for Japanese feature films.
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Eligible Projects

Short Films (runtime ≦ 20 min)
Featurette (runtime 20 ≦ 55 min)
Feature Films (runtime ≧ 55 min)
Documentary Feature Films (runtime ≧ 40min)


Eligibility criteria

1)Films must be completed after January 1st, 2023.

2)All films in a language other than English or Japanese must be subtitled in English.

3)Screening material should be in digital format at MOV.

*Once the submission fee is paid, it will not be refunded under any circumstances.


Selection Result

The result of the Pre-Selection will be notified via e-mail in mid-June 2025.


Selected Films
1)Films cannot be withdrawn from the festival under any circumstances after the applicant has agreed to participate in the festival.

2)Required Materials
　Participants whose films have been selected are required to send the following materials to KIFF by the due date.

(a)Digital Photo Data : main photo of the film, sub cuts of the film, and the director’s photo, poster in data.

(b)English subtitle lists (SRT file), excluding Japanese spoken film.

(c)A file of the final version of the film with English subtitles.

(d) Trailer and excerpts of the film in mov.file

3)Screening Materials and Subtitles

(a)English subtitled MOV should reach the designated address by June 30th.

(b)KIFF will bear the cost of producing Japanese subtitles. In case that a film has a distributor in Japan, the distributor must provide the Japanese subtitles.