Event Report2016.04.24OIMF8 Shows Success in Numbers

The 8th Okinawa International Movie Festival saw some 350,000 visitors attend the various events across the islands this year, with red carpets taking place in Naha City. This ensured that more people than ever could glimpse the stars and feel the energy of OIMF.

196 volunteers assisted in cleaning up venues and guiding guests around the festival this year, including for 75 film screenings. 19 Special Invitation Films from around the world gave the festival its international flavor, but with 14 Community Based movies, the importance of developing local talent has always been at the core of the festival.

Starting from the 5th Okinawa International Movie Festival, the 4th year of this project has set up the "Creator's Factory U-25 Movie Category" to find and support the development of the next generation of movie makers under 25 years of age, and a "Movie Proposal (Screenplay) Category" for new movie plans. In the Creator’s Factory Screenplay Category, the Grand Prix winner was Yudai Tomita for “Okaeri-no-aru-bscho (The Place with Welcome Home)” The Under 25 Award went to Osamu Kuramochi for “Sansangogo.”

Famous artists from Yoshimoto appeared over the four days, with program guests, dance performers and live musical acts entertaining the crowd. Notable names such as NMB48, Naomi Watanabe, Kaori Momoi, Lorene Ren (star of Taiwanese production “Rookie Chef”), three-time Tony Award winner Hinton Battle, and comedians Garage Sale provided some of the star power.