Japan’s Film Funds Look Beyond Production Committees to Build New Financing Models

Japan’s production committee system, in which a group of companies jointly finance a film and share its rights, has helped spread risk across the industry. But it can also cap budgets at what the industry itself can raise, make it harder for overseas investors to take part and slow decisions when every rights holder must […] At TIFFCOM, K2 Pictures, MUFG Bank and others weighed how film funds can bring outside capital into Japanese film beyond production committees. Japan’s production committee system, in which a group of companies jointly finance a film and share its rights, has helped spread risk across the industry.

But it can also cap budgets at what the industry itself can raise, make it harder for overseas investors to take part and slow decisions when every rights holder must agree. At a panel at TIFFCOM, the content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, speakers examined whether film funds can ease those limits while still fitting Japan’s market. “Film Funds in Japan: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Comes Next” featured Kii Muneyuki, CEO and producer of K2 Pictures, which works with filmmakers including Kore-eda Hirokazu, Miike Takashi and Nishikawa Miwa; Ibe Tomonobu, CEO of Questry, a Tokyo startup that