Tokyo Film Market adds new genre film financing unit

A movie has already raised 60“ of its budget. Where to make up the remaining money is a practical problem that many independent projects encounter.Tokyo’s fill-in financing market continues to bring such projects to investors and industry experts this year, and a new genre film unit has been added.On September 9, Variety reported that TIFFCOM cooperated with Frontières for the first time to bring horror and thriller projects to the seventh Tokyo Fill-in Financing Market.

The 24 feature film projects selected this time come from 24 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, South America and North America.The market threshold is clearly written. The project will only enter one-on-one talks if it has received at least 60” of the total budget.Its role is to connect feature film projects that still have funding gaps with suitable industry insiders to help the projects complete the remaining financing.

All selected projects must have an Asian element.This condition makes the market very international in scope, with the focus still falling on Asia-related creations and productions.In this year's film list, there are 12 projects produced by Japan, 8 of which are from Japan.Projects from Thailand, Nepal, Brazil and other places have also entered the genre film section, and the regional mix is ​​richer than in a single market.

Frontières is operated by the Canadian Fantastic International Film Festival and has long been focusing on genre film co-productions.This is the first time it has held a showcase unit in Asia, bringing five projects, including feature films and animated features.Tanya Morissette, deputy director of Frontières, said that this cooperation hopes to connect genre film creation communities in different regions and open up more channels between markets for new projects.

The market will also cooperate with Imagica Group this year to hold a public roadshow for the first time.On the afternoon of October 28, 10 of the 24 projects will be introduced on stage, 5 of which are from the Frontières display unit.Public roadshows allow project parties to not only communicate in scheduled meetings, but also to explain their creative direction and financing needs to more people in the industry on the same occasion.

Animation projects account for 5 of this year’s 24 film lists.The report mentioned that one of them is based on a French graphic novel, and its theme involves the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.There is also a project director who previously worked as an original artist on the Pokémon TV series.The market puts animation, drama, horror and thriller projects into the same event, and project forms and themes are not limited to one direction.

The cooperation between Italian Cinema City and TIFFCOM will also enter its third year.This cooperation will start in 2024 and will bring three projects this year, including an Italian-Japanese co-production.Tokyo's fill-in-the-vacancy financing market does not only understand cooperation as financial arrangements. The film list itself includes production companies and creators from different countries. Transnational production in this link is already a specific project portfolio.

Projects selected in the past for Tokyo’s gap-filling financing market have subsequently appeared at international film festivals.The report lists past projects that have won awards at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.The market is jointly organized by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Unijapan. The official TIFFCOM page confirms that the 2026 event will be attended by film, television, animation and other content parties, as well as buyers and producers from various countries.

This year’s Tokyo Fill-in Financing Market is scheduled to be held from October 28th to 30th. It is part of TIFFCOM 2026 and will be linked to the Tokyo International Film Festival at the same time.New genre film exhibitions and public road shows have been included in this session's schedule.For projects that are replenishing their budgets, whether these three days can turn the talks into the next step of cooperation will be the most direct result of the market.