ConFes events focus on content

Japan festival to present full range of genres

By MARK SCHILLING

A day after Osaka unveiled plans for its own content mart, Japan's Visual Industry Promotion Organization announced that the first Japan Contents Festival, nicknamed ConFes, will be held in Tokyo from Sept. 20-Oct. 28.

Unveiled Thursday at the Tokyo Anime Fair, ConFes will present the full range of Japanese content, including pics, toons, comics, music, TV shows and character goods, in events at various venues.

The first will be the Tokyo Game Show, skedded for Sept. 20-23 at the Makuhari Messe hall in Tokyo. This year the show, which focuses on next-generation games, will be extended a day, with a beefed-up market.

Several ConFes events will be held during the Tokyo Film Festival, to be held from Oct. 20-28. The biggest will be the Tiffcom market, skedded for Oct. 22-24. Launched in 2004, Tiffcom aims to be the biggest content market in Asia, bringing pics, TV shows, toons and other Japanese and Asian contents to the world.

ConFes will also feature an anime event showcasing toon houses and  projects, in a mix of market and presentations. The dates have yet to be set. Some 13 events will be held under the ConFes banner, all aimed at boosting the international profile of Japanese contents, while developing talents and projects in the local biz.   

Companies and orgs in the ConFes organizing committee come from all areas of the Japanese content biz, from pics and TV to music. The executive producer is Yutaka Shigenobu, chairman of the TV Man Union production house, who came up with the ConFes concept.