The 10th Uno Port Art Film Festival: Open Call for Japanese Short Films
Deadline 8/15 11:59pm] Unique Mini International Film Festival in Okayama
Organizer: 宇野港芸術映画座（Uno Port Art Films）
Official website URL： http://unoportartfilms.org/ja/
Inquiry e-mail address： info@online-upaf.org
Competition Overview:
Uno Port Art Films (UPAF) is a handmade film festival that began in the summer of 2010 in Uno Port, Okayama Prefecture, and has been held annually until 2016 and every two years since. We have presented many soulful indie films from countries and cultures that are not easily accessible through Japan’s commercial distribution network, by creating our own Japanese subtitles for many of those titles. Our main theme is “Life, Art, Film.” In 2020, we established the Japanese Short Film Section and began accepting submissions of short films related to Japan, such as those that feature Japanese characters or were made in Japan. This year will be the 3rd edition of the call-for-entries.
History & Transition of UPAF: For the first six years, we had outdoor screenings in a huge field against the backdrop of the Seto Inland Sea. We put up a screen that we handmade in a big trailer that a local sea transportation company lent us for free. Since then, the form, location, and scale of UPAF have changed with the times, as vacant lots disappear with the wave of development and foreign OTTs such as Netflix make their way into Japan. We continue to do UPAF because it still seems worthwhile to make the effort. This time, we will hold online screenings from September to December, and in-person screenings in January 2025 at the Hokancho 4-chome Lounge Kado, a cafe in Okayama City.
Uno Port in Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture, the birthplace of UPAF, is a port town with many domestic and international visitors to the Naoshima Art Site and an international port. Therefore, UPAF has always been a bilingual (Japanese-English) event from the beginning. Although there may not be screenings in Uno this year, we will not change our stance and films will be screened with Japanese-English subtitles. Two films will be selected from the Japan Short Film Competition and will be screened in combination with other excellent works from abroad. The two selected films will be screened with English subtitles (Japanese subtitles for those not in Japanese) by UPAF, and the files can be provided upon request (supervised by our staff, who is a professional film subtitle translator). We hope this will help you submit your films to festivals around the world and bring them to a global audience. Japanese shorts will be screened at online screenings in November or December and in-person screenings in January. If you enter your film and if you wish, you can request your comp ticket for up to 2 online programs.
In addition to the main theme, each edition of UPAF has a mini-theme to coincide with important world events. The mini-theme for the 10th UPAF is “Palestine,” and we will be screening 5-6 films that provide an overview of Palestine’s history while showing high artistic merit. Films from other countries will also be screened. There will be a wide variety of genres, including dramas and documentaries.
Application Guidelines
Application Requirements
- Films must be less than 30 minutes in duration.
- The work must fit the theme of “Life, Art, Film” and the creator must feel that they put their heart and soul into the work.（About UPAF）
- The work must be produced in or about Japan or Japanese, or must feature Japanese or Japanese people as the main characters. Diaspora work is welcome.
- If a language other than Japanese is included, Japanese or English subtitles must be included.
- The applicant must own the copyright to the work.
- Copyrights and neighboring rights to music, sound and images used in the film, as well as copyrights, portrait rights and other rights of third parties appearing in the film, must be cleared. The Festival and the organizers will not be held responsible for any disputes that may arise due to unaddressed rights above.
- A film of any genre or year of production, regardless of its online release status, can be entered. However, films that are widely available on the Internet and have received a significant number of views may be disadvantageous. Films that have been previously submitted cannot be entered.
- Consent to the organizer’s use of a portion of the film and the promo materials (stills, director’s portrait, synopsis, introduction, etc.) sent by the applicant as part of the promotional activities for the festival and related events after the film has been selected for screening.
*The organizer will make the final judgment as to whether the above conditions are met.
Application period
Deadline Thursday, August 15, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Must arrive no later than 11:59 p.m.
Call for Entries
The 10th Uno Port Art Films Japanese Short Films Open Call (Number of films to be screened: 2)
At a Glance:
■ Dates:
Online Screening: September 20 – December 19, 2024. 1-2 programs will be screened every 3 weeks (each screening period will be 7 days). Screening will be worldwide or with geo-block in Japan depending on the films.
In-person screenings: January 10-13, 2025
Venues: Online & Okayama City Cafe “Hokancho 4-chome Lounge Kado”
Contents: Approximately 10-12 programs. Feature-length and shorts from various places in the world including 5-6 excellent Palestine films, and selected short films from the Japan Short Film Competition
Organized by: Uno Port Art Films
Selection
The organizing team will select the films to be screened and will inform you by the end of September. Several UPAF volunteer staff members will be in charge of the selection process. We are not particularly elite filmmakers, but have worked in the fields of film, art, education (cinema studies), translation, acting, and are long-time film enthusiasts. We will view the films sincerely. We can send you our viewingnotes upon request (please note that we will send the scathing reviews as they are). If your film is selected, you will send us a downloadbale link to the master .mov or H264 mp4, and we will add English subtitles (or Japanese subtitles if necessary) to the film. We will share an SRT file, or mp4.
How to apply
The entry fee is 1,000 yen per work. Please transfer the amount to the following account. Please kindly cover the bank transfer fee.
Bank transfer address:
PayPay銀行 すずめ支店 普通貯金口座番号7970662 トクヒ）ウノコウゲイジュツエイガザ
In addition, please prepare the followingw and submit your application using the application form below.
Application Form: https://forms.gle/kVNXd7qCw2x3ZfMSA
- Applicant’s name, relationship to the submitted work, and contact information
- Title of work, title of work in English (if any), website of work (if any)
- Director’s name, director’s name in English
- Year of production, length, format of material to be shown, camera model (SLR, smartphone, name of manufacturer, etc.)
- Names of performers (up to 4), production staff (up to 4: camera, editor, producer, etc.)
- Work synopsis (about 200 words)
- Supervisor’s introduction (200 words level)
- Screening history at festivals, events, cinemas, online, etc. (200 words or less)
- URL to view the work (upload compressed data such as mp4 to Vimeo or YouTube with limited public access if necessary, or upload the video file to online storage, and make it available for viewing until September 30). Please remember to include your password if you choose to make your film publicly viewable.
- URL if publishing on the Internet
- Trailer URL (if available)
- Director’s mug shot (at least one)
- At least 2 stills of the work
- Where did you find information about this application?
- Reasons for applying to our film festival (100 words or less)
You will receive a confirmation email as soon as your payment and entry form are confirmed.
Question.
info@online-upaf.org
We look forward to receiving many applications from you.
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