Interview
■Award Winners of International Competition
■Award Winners of Japanese Film Competition
Award Winners of International Competition
＜Grand Prize＞ Samuel THEIS (Director), Caroline BONMARCHAND (Producer) “Softie”
― How do you feel after receiving the Grand Prize?
Samuel THEIS (Director)
Very happy because it’s been a whole year now, we are going to different places all over the world with the film, so really had a great journey with this film. To end up here after one year, in Japan we feel we are really lucky. As Caroline said on the stage, it’s true that receiving awards from different, from foreign countries, it builds bridges between our French culture and the Japanese. So we are very happy about this.
Caroline BONMARCHAND (Producer)
I’m very happy to have this award and very proud because I’m a big fan of Japanese cinema, Ozu, Kore-eda, which also work a lot with children on the films. This gives us hope and also the courage to go on making films. So it’s great and we are very happy to have this prize.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
Samuel THEIS (Director)
For me, it was the first time to Japan. So I had lots of expectations actually, and high hopes were all filled. I was very impressed by the selection of the festival, which are very good films I saw some of them including three French films in the competition. I was really impressed by the ambition and also the kindness of the people working here. This is also something that I really experienced with the Japanese culture. They are very dedicated to what they do. I think they share something in common with the French culture, which is taste of refinement and sophistication. So I was really moved and impressed in the same way by being here.
Caroline BONMARCHAND (Producer)
For me, it was the third time in Japan. But I was really impressed by the kindness and attention of the organization of the festival, by the people and by the good way it was organized. Of course, it’s also very unique to share that kind of experience with Samuel, my Director I work with. To be able to do that, at the end of one year of traveling with the film, it’s very touching. So they were very happy times and good memories to keep for a long time.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
Samuel THEIS (Director)
The strange thing that happened to this film is that we shot that before the pandemic. So it was very close to being finished when the pandemic started. It was very weird because it never happens that you finish a film and you have to wait for a time that we don’t know how long it will take. So during the pandemic, I started to write a new project and we are developing that together with Caroline. We are planning to shoot it next February, so we are already into the work of preparing this film and this is why this festival came to a sort of ending of traveling with Softie and let us know it was time to go into the new one.
Caroline BONMARCHAND (Producer)
For Softie, we hope the film would get picked up by a distributor in Japan and could be shown on a big scale. For the next project, we keep our fingers crossed that it would be invited to the next SKIP CITY festival.
＜Special Jury Prize＞ Alejandro LOAYZA GRISI (Director) “Utama”
― How do you feel after receiving the Special Jury Prize?
Thank you very much. First of all, I’m very thankful to my entire cast and crew, to the entire organization of the festival, and of course I’m very proud and happy. I must say I’m very happy to see how a Bolivian film can travel the world and to the other end of the world to this beautiful country and being enjoyed by the Japanese audience. So I’m very happy about this prize.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
I really loved to be able to come here, in this particularly difficult situation where we’re living. I was very happy and grateful to get to know this culture that I was always interested in and that always I had admired. Experiencing the festival was also great. Getting to know colleagues, it’s always fantastic. Being able to screen some films is also a great experience during the festival, because you get the sense, the moment and the sense what the programmers are sensing in the films. The experience was fabulous and I hope I’ll be able to come back here one day.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
For the future, I would like to still make films in Bolivia and set in Bolivia to tell more stories of my country. I’m very much in love with my country. I’m very happy to be able to share these stories and these landscapes with the rest of the world. So I hope I’m able to still make more films and still be able to share these stories with big audiences.
Award Winners of Japanese Film Competition
＜SKIP CITY AWARD＞ Shogo KIRIU (Director) “Journey”
― How do you feel after receiving the SKIP CITY AWARD?
To be honest, I was taken aback and surprised because I didn't expect to receive an award. I thought that winning the Best Picture award would be tough, but I was talking to the cinematographer that there might be a possibility if it was the SKIP CITY AWARD. Anyway I had waited without expecting too much. The fact that I was awarded this prize means, however, that I am expected to submit a good film next time, being able to use the equipment and facilities at SKIP CITY. I take this award as one of the results as of now, and then I want to cherish new films too.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
I shot three films at Musashino Art University, two short films and one feature film. The biggest realization was that although I was doing it, I wasn't consciously aware of being my film watched by the audience, because I mainly made films to express myself, Maybe due to the types of my movies, it was the first time I had actually experienced the process of having people come to the theater, having the audience watch it, sharing their impressions, and spreading the word about it. I felt the difficulty of getting more people to watch it, the difficulty and the inadequacy of conveying what I was thinking, so I learned a lot during the two days.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
I think one of my strengths is that I don't stick to the so-called Japanese directing style. I want to develop my own creativeness by creating pauses and cuts that seem a little monotonous, and in the next film and the next, next film, instead of getting coherent, I will challenge more and more to create new perspectives of films. I want to challenge anything new.
＜Best Picture (Japanese Feature Category)＞ Enen YO (Director) “Double Life”
― How do you feel after receiving the Best Picture (Japanese Feature Category)?
Thank you very much. I didn’t think I would receive an award at all, so this is like a dream. I was very nervous when I was on stage, but I am finally able to report to everyone. Thank you very much. (Juror) Ms. Rie Tsukinaga told me about the theme of my film, "touching each other", and I was very moved. This is my first feature film, so like this film, I touch and interact with people I don't know, and then something changes. I sincerely hope that will happen.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
I thought it was a really decent film festival, with a big screen, speakers, and a great environment. After the screening, the audience asked me a lot of questions, and I signed autographs for the first time. I am very happy that my first feature film was screened at the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL. Thank you very much.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
I really like writing stories, and even now I'm writing for a short film about 30 minutes long. Before I go back to China, I would like to make this short film somehow. Thank you very much.
＜Best Picture (Japanese Short Category)＞ Moe WAKABAYASHI (Director) “3 Intestine Road, Fish Island”
― How do you feel after receiving the Best Picture (Japanese Short Category)?
I'm so happy! I never thought I would receive the award until the moment my name was called, so it’s still unbelievable for me. After listening to the jurors’ comments, I was very happy that they not only saw the visual image of the work, but also paid attention to the musical elements.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
I had a lot of people involved in this work, but I was always working in my room, and I was doing it by myself. It was a really irreplaceable experience to be able to see the completion in such a way, to have so many people come and see it, and to be able to screen it in a wonderful space.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
I would like to make another animated work with a narrative. Next, I would like to make one depicting the relationship between dogs and humans, or another with the tail of a monster called Chimera as the main character. I would also like to challenge myself with longer works, although it was a 17-minute film this time.
＜Audience Award (Japanese Feature Category)＞ Takeshi KAMEI (Director) “VATA”
― How do you feel after receiving the Audience Award (Japanese Feature Category)?
It's a Malagasy movie set in Madagascar. Also, it's a story that you don't usually watch, and so I'm surprised that the audience actually supported it. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the people involved in the production and to the film festival staff.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
As the festival staff said, I felt the joy of sharing a film on one screen with everyone, and reconfirmed the ideal form of film. My film itself is a film that shares one matter or thing, so I'm really happy to be a part of the festival.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
This is my third film. The first is set in Mongolia, the second is Madagascar, and the third this time is also Madagascar. It is often said that I have a unique perspective, but I myself have continued to see things from just my own perspective. I would like to continue to make films through visiting places that I can see, and feeling things.
＜Audience Award (Japanese Short Category)＞ Tatsuro MANNO (Director) “Storage Man”
― How do you feel after receiving the Audience Award (Japanese Short Category)?
The last scene of this film is showing the way for the protagonist, who has been in a pretty miserable situation until then, to stand up. I made this film because I wanted to wish the best to the whole of Japan as well as the world. I am really happy to know that the film touched the audience and was chosen for the Audience Award.
― What do you think after participating in the D-Cinema FESTIVAL?
I thought it was a film festival that is very supportive to creators. As a director, I feel very anxious when I'm making the film, and I'm very anxious as well until the audience sees it. That’s why I am grateful that the festival staff were very warm to me. Also, I am very thankful that the film was screened in such a wonderful environment, and that the audience who saw the film gave us their feedback directly. Thank you very much.
― Would you tell us about your current and future projects?
My previous film was 20 minutes long and this film was 40 minutes, so I definitely want to try a feature film next time. It's also my own proposition, but I want to continue depicting social issues in a slightly entertaining style. I'd like to create something like a socially-minded dark comedy.
*Comments from the winners are as of the awards ceremony.