Casting Forum - How to find Japanese actors for films -
For Directors who are actively working in Hollywood, what are the difficulties they face in casting Japanese actors? How did the director cast Ken Watanabe, one of the most famous Japanese actors? And how did the director find him? We will have a discussion about how casting process differs from the Europe and the United States with casting agents from those countries along with Japanese entertainment agencies.

Entertainment Remake Business Symposium
-What works? And what doesn't?-
Japanese contents become popular among Hollywood and Asian countries for remaking. What caught the attention of producers to acquire? What are essentials to be selected? What kind of troubles would occur due to differences in business manners? Experienced panelists are invited from Korea, Hollywood, and Japan for discussions.

TPG is a market for international co-production and finding investors, or project partners. TPG2008 has received more than 120 applications from 25 countries. They came mainly from Asia, but this year we received increasing numbers of applications from Europe, North and South America as well.

TPG2008 selected 34 finalists applied by world famous filmmakers and directors. TPG2008 has actively promoting its market to various business fields in addition to film industry. TPG provides much more business opportunities for its participants by networking parties and business matching compared to previous years.

A number of attractive locations are dotted across Japan, which will provide excellent stages for visual content such as movies. Japan Location Market 2008 will lay out various events including seminars and symposiums in order to stimulate greater acceptance and attraction of shooting on location in Japan.

J-Pitch, a support program for Japanese producers aspiring to achieve international co-productions, will hold a series of seminars, with "international co-production" as the keyword. Seminars will comprise two sections, the first being a case study with female Japanese producers whose three international co-productions were entered in this year's Cannes International Film Festival. The second session is a roundtable with directors in charge of overseas project markets.
Please note simultaneous interpretation will be provided for these both sessions.

The seminar will introduce specific cases on collaboration between Japan and Hong Kong on METI's, "Asian Content Initiative" policy. Distinguished business experts from Japan and Hong Kong are invited as guest speakers to deliver lecture on business modes of China and Asian market by exploiting Hong Kong as business platform.

"Asia-Pacific Producers Network," a network of film producers who are active internationally based in the Asia–Pacific region, is holding its 3rd general assembly in Tokyo. Its aim is to foster a favorable environment to promote co-productions in the Asia-Pacific region through exchange of film producers in the region, exchange of information on the film industries in each country and discussion of various issues concerning film production.

The Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry and VIPO will hold a seminar on "Status and Policies of European Film Market" for those involved in the domestic content industry by inviting Ms. Véronique Cayla, General Manager of France's CNC (National Center of Cinematography) and the leading authority of European Film Festival, Mr. Lionel Chouchan as lecturers, who are visiting Japan on the occasion for CoFesta 2008 and the 21st Tokyo International Film Festival.