Amin Abbas, Dubai

The Japan Foundation in Cairo, Egypt, have announced that the Japanese Film Festival 2021 is set to take place from Feb. 26 to March. 7, where it will screen the largest number of Japanese films available to Egyptian audiences all over the country.

The ten-day festival, will showcase 25 films ranging from features, to documentaries, to modern-production animation films released between 2014 and 2020, as well as the old feature film “The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice” produced in 1952, have been curated specially for the festival.

“We are so pleased to present for the first time a large number of new and modern-production films to the whole Egyptian audience. And for the first time, we will not be restricted to a limited number of audience according to the capacity of the screening halls in which we show our films, as happened in the past years. As well, it’s the first time where people in all governorates of Egypt and even remote areas will be able to watch Japanese movies, as long as they have internet connection. Films will be available for 24 hours starting from their validity time; their availability online. Which allows everyone to choose the right time for them to watch the film instead of being restricted to a specific time as the case in traditional film theatres,” Director of the Japan Foundation Cairo FUKAZAWA Yo said.

“You can watch and enjoy movies from home or anywhere else, you wouldn’t bother going to a film theatre or cinema halls in such conditions with the pandemic,” Fukazawa added.

Further information about the films that will be showcased can be found on the the Japanese Film Festival website.

The Japan Foundation is an independent administrative organization, established in 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, with the objective of promoting intercultural-exchange between the people of Japan and other countries, as well as the maintenance and development of harmonious relationships with foreign countries through different fields that include, arts, culture, Japanese language, Japanese studies and intellectual exchange.

The Japanese Film Festival is a project held by the Japan Foundation to promote Japanese film around the world. The program was launched in 2016 for 10 ASEAN countries and Australia under the slogan “Japanese Film Anytime, Anywhere.”

The Japan Foundation continued to hold the festivals presenting the latest Japanese films while simultaneously expanding their network to include countries like China, Russia, and India. In the 2019-20 year, the foundation held festivals in 56 cities in 12 countries, which were watched by more than 170,000 viewers.