The Tokyo International Film Festival‘s TIFFCOM market exhibition space sold out early this year, according to managing director Ikeda Kaori. More Japanese producers are using the Tokyo market to find partners while projects are still in development. Last year’s edition drew more than 4,600 industry professionals from 46 countries and regions, and attendance rose 13%.
Ikeda credits global interest in Japanese content for part of that growth. She also points to Asia, which is now one of the world’s largest markets. Governments across the region are actively backing their content industries, she says.
This year’s Tokyo IP Market has grown to 10 participating IP holders and adds new categories, toys among them. The pitch event has also changed format. Each company now gives a focused pitch on its flagship IP.
The changes come after the market’s expansion to the Cannes Film Market this year, where more than 700 people registered for its pitches, panels and related programs. The audience was mostly from Europe and Hollywood. Ikeda says the IP holders who took part held a run of meetings with partners they rarely get to see in person.
An initiative proposed by the Cannes market also set up matchmaking with the XR sector. Overseas interest goes beyond the obvious hits. On the other hand, Japan still possesses a great number of outstanding original works with strong potential for screen adaptations and remakes, and Tokyo IP Market is designed as the platform to discover them,” Ikeda says.
Many producers want to adapt or distribute distinctive stories that are not yet well known, she adds, and each market has its own scale and audience. The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (TGFM) has 24 live-action and animation projects this year. It has also teamed with Canadian genre outfit Frontières.
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