Sonali Joshi, founder of UK distributor Day for Night, has launched a Japan-based distribution, sales and production outfit titled Not That Films and landed its first title.
The new company, based in Tokyo, will be overseen by Joshi as founder and director alongside Day for Night co-director Chonpel Tsering as head of international projects. Both have relocated from the UK to Japan.
They have begun building its sales slate with the acquisition of State Of Statelessness, a four-part anthology drama by Tibetan filmmakers living in exile, which received its world premiere at Busan in October. The company will aim to acquire four titles a year, mirroring Day for Night’s distribution strategy in the UK.
Not That Films will target features by emerging directors, particularly from Asia and the global south, and filmmakers with “a singular artistic vision, often from smaller national film industries, covering underrepresented areas of cinema”.
Joshi is at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) this week to introduce the new company to the industry and begin talks with buyers and festivals as well as filmmakers and producers, while seeking new titles to acquire.
Continuing talks in the year ahead, she will also attend Cannes, Locarno, Edinburgh, Busan and Tokyo while Charlotte Robinson, who leads on UK theatrical distribution for Day for Night, will cover the BFI London Film Festival.
“At Day for Night, we’ve had a long-standing interest in Japanese cinema as well as independent Asian cinema, and this move to Tokyo with our new company is a natural progression building on our past body of work,” said Joshi.
“We’re eager to move into a more international-facing space to continue championing the works of outstanding emerging talent from Asia and Latin American in particular to reach wider international audiences.”
In distribution, the two sister companies will look to jointly acquire rights for the UK and Japan, while Not That Films will work in collaboration with Japanese distributors to release features. It will initially distribute around two films per year as the company grows.
Co-production plans
Joshi also has plans to move into co-production in Japan, focusing on UK and European features looking to film in the country. The executive, who has had “initial discussions” for upcoming projects, previously produced The Open Door by Bhutanese filmmaker Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, which premiered at Locarno in 2018.
The move follows with the launch of Japan’s first official location production incentive scheme to attract international film, high-end TV and streaming projects to shoot in the country.
Not That Films also plans to spotlight directors via “curatorial and distribution projects”. The initial director in focus will be Chile’s Dominga Sotomayor, whose first three features were distributed by Day for Night.
Joshi explained that launching the new company represented “a desire to be closer to the film industries we’re working with”. “Given that the majority of our work is centred on Asian cinema, it makes sense to build our presence in Asia itself,” she added.
Joshi founded Day for Night in 2006 and the company moved into UK distribution in 2013, with a focus on independent films from around the world, mainly from Asia and emerging directors. It championed the early works of Chile’s Sotomayor, India’s Chaitanya Tamhane and Thailand’s Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.
Features distributed by the company in the UK last year included South Korean drama Next Sohee, Japanese drama Remembering Every Night and award-winning Tibetan film Snow Leopard from late filmmaker Pema Tseden. It will next release Cottontail on February 14, a UK-Japan co-production directed by Patrick Dickinson.
The firm also provides subtitling and audio description, with Not For Films also set to provide these services for film festivals, distributors and filmmakers.
Prior to launching Day for Night, Sonali worked in the programming team at Cornerhouse (now HOME, Manchester) before moving into distribution in Paris and then heading up the foreign language subtitling team at UK post-production house International Broadcast Facilities.
She was previously artistic director at the former Pan-Asia Film Festival in London and founded Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival in the UK.
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