Going to Japanese Film Festivals: Audiences, Motivations and Experiences

This chapter investigates audience reception at the Japanese Film Festivals (JFFs). It explores the identities of JFF audiences and looks at how people from various demographics across the region participate in these events. Drawing on the critical voices and experiences of JFF audiences, this chapter examines their motivations, film selection process, festival-going patterns and levels of interest in JFF programs. Arguing against the dominant positioning of film festival audiences as mainly cinephiles, this chapter demonstrates how JFFs are supported and sustained by the multiplicity of their audiences. The diverse attributes, motivations, preferences and interests of JFF audiences collectively construct new modes of participation in ways that redefine the traditional role of film festival audiences from just being considered primarily as cinephiles. This chapter expands on existing audience typologies currently established in film festival studies to reveal seven classifications of audience profiles at JFFs: the Japanophile; the pop culture fan; the Asian enthusiast; the cinema specialist; the film festival-goer; the connection seeker; and the arts practitioner. Examining the potential of JFFs as a site for the transmission of cultural diplomatic messages, this chapter also evaluates the extent to which JFF programs foster imaginative engagements with the exporting nation and shape the ways audiences think about Japan.