The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) held a workshop called "Kyoto Filmmakers Lab" from Oct. 25 to 30 in collaboration with the Kyoto HISTORICA International Film Festival at the historical Ooe Nohgakudo Theater. A new program, "Masters Session," was added to support the continuous progress of young filmmakers and to assist their success in the film industry. TIFF arranged for one of the Masters Session and TIFF jury members from the Asian Future and Japanese Cinema Splash section to give a stimulating lecture, "Now and Future for Asian Cinema: The Standing Point of Asian Cinema," moderated by Mako Tanaka (Director of Kobe Film Office). 78 participants from 19 countries and regions attended this session.

At the session, guest speakers Jacob Wong (Curator, Hong Kong International Film Festival), Olivier Pere (Executive Director, ARTE France Cinema), Tatsushi Omori (Director), Mark Peranson (Head of Programming, Festival del Film Locarno) and Jeane Huang (Organizer of Urban Nomad Film Festival in Taiwan) talked about the present situation of the film industry and about independent filmmakers in their own countries and regions.

Referring to the situation in Japan, Omori said that although there are many independent films produced, fewer middle-budget films succeed in having both artistic and commercial elements compared to the past.

Pere said the situation in France is different in terms of support as the government supports cinema and French television channels are required to invest in film production, and especially ARTE is particularly interested in supporting new filmmakers. Wong from Hong Kong talked about the situation in mainland China as well as in Hong Kong. In mainland China, the major web companies are uniquely positioned to invest in and provide content as 60% of the moving images produced in mainland China are now seen on the consumer's cell phones or tablets and still there is enormous demand for content. Wong said this situation is a following wind for the independent filmmakers and that now the major websites are also producing films, adding that so young filmmakers could go to their studios and produce films for them. Following the panel's session, a Q&A session with the audience was held.