The opening day has marked the commemorative record having counted the grand total number of audience 200,000 since the festival's inauguration in 1991. This year, 60 films were screened in total, as many as last year, and audience attendance has reached the record high. One of the features was the Spotlight-Women's Film section where six titles directed by women filmmakers were introduced. Among all those excellent films, Hejar, a Turkish film about the Kurdish issue drew the wide attention.
Other two special programmes also attracted people; the Vietnam Film in Focus section screened rather new type of films representing from the Vietnam film industry that is now in the transformation phase with their 50th anniversary, and in Korean Cinema Collection section a variety kinds of films were gathered in Fukuoka from popular, Korean pictures.
Many movie fans rushed to see not only feature films but documentaries and short films such as Daughter from Yan'an filmed in China by Japanese director Kaoru Ikeya, and Barefoot to Herat by the prominent filmmaker Majid Majidi witnessing the realities of the neighbouring country, Afghanistan. Majidi also presented a short film which was popular among audience as well as a Korean film made up of short stories by six talented directors.
Thailand's humming film industry sent Fukuoka two noteworthy films made by young directors, Mekhong Full Moon Party and One Night Husband. Also, Australia has made the first entry into the festival with Beneath Clouds, a debut film by a young director.
With the outbreak of Sars that hit Asia this spring, how it would affect guests' attendance was our concern before the disease-free declaration. Far from our worry, leading actresses of Asia including Konkona Sensharma (India), Nimmi Harasgama (Sri Lanka), Ho Thi Kim Khanh (Vietnam), Siriyakorn Pookaves (Thailand), Chen Shiang-chyi (Taiwan), and Chang Mi-hee (Korea), came and lent brilliance to the festival.
Philippines' filmmaker Marilou Diaz-Abaya who calls Fukuoka her "second home" came to the festival expressly as one of the panellists of the Forum entitled "Message from Asian Filmmakers."