How a Tokyo Market Meeting Led to Italian Partners for Annecy Winner The Violinist
The Violinist, an animated feature that took the top prize at France's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, got its Italian co-producers at a film market in Tokyo. Singaporean filmmaker Ervin Han told a panel at TIFFCOM, the content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, that a meeting there in 2023 brought them on board, according to Variety.
Han, co-founder and CEO of Singapore's Robot Playground Media, co-directed and produced the film. On his first visit to TIFFCOM, he met Italian producer Cristiano Bortone and his team at Altri Occhi. They later joined The Violinist as co-producers. The project had already been selected for TGFM 2023, a development programme at the same market, according to TIFFCOM.
The film then went on to win the Crystal Award, the Grand Prix, at the 2026 Annecy festival, which is one of the best-known gatherings for animation in the world. Han said the project took 10 years from first idea to finished film.
Han was back at TIFFCOM this year. This time he pitched a new animated feature, A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, which he is producing with partners from Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Ireland. The film is about food, horror and temptation.
The market ran from October 28 to 30, 2026, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho-Kan. Opening hours were 9:30 to 18:00 each day, with the final day closing at 16:00, according to TIFFCOM's website. Last year the event drew more than 4,600 participants from 46 countries and regions. Those participants held more than 7,700 business meetings.
For anyone outside the film industry, a market like this works as a matchmaking event. Producers bring projects that are still in development or partly funded. Co-producers from other countries can share the cost and the work, and buyers can sign up to show the finished film. Co-production deals like the one behind The Violinist often take years to close, which helps explain the long gap between the 2023 meeting and the Annecy win.
TIFFCOM also hosted a session this year called "Anime's New Frontier: Structuring & Financing International Co-Productions," moderated by Kawano Masao, program manager at Into Global. The session covered how projects of this kind are put together across borders.
The Violinist's Annecy result and Han's new pitch both show how one meeting in Tokyo can lead to a film being made several years later. The next step for A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts is still to be decided.
