June, 1996, saw the inauguration of the Fukuoka City Public
Library Film Archive, which researches, collects, acquires,
preserves and exhibits visual material centered around masterpieces
in Asian and Japanese cinema. The Film Archive has enhanced
the significance of Fukuoka as a center of information on Asian
films. Since 1996, a system has been established where titles
exhibited at our festival are acquired into the collection of
the Film Archive.

　The festival in 1996 featured a collection of films from the
Philippines, one of a few countries in the world where the domestic
film industry can stand up to American films in terms of box
office success. Centered on powerful, robust and entertaining
films, the collection brought great excitement to the audience
which included Filipinos residing in Fukuoka. In particular,
Marilou Diaz-Abaya, a participant to our 1995 as well as 1996
festival, has come to place her most recent works for exhibition
with us. Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s positive attitude towards exchanging
opportunities with local civic groups has made her one of Fukuoka’s
best known filmmakers from Asia. Regarding exchange, we found
Ahn Sung-Kee, the famous Korean actor, surrounded by a crowd
asking for his autograph after the screening of Festival.
The introduction of Bombay, an entertaining film full of song
and dance dealing with a social issue, can be regarded as the
starting point in the popular trend of mainstream Indian cinema
in Japan which we expect to see more of. The festival had the
opportunity to introduce Bag of Rice, a collaboration effort
between a Japanese and Iranian company, realized as a result
of the Iranian film director’s participation in our festival
the year before. Additionally, two newcomers, Prasanna Vithanage
of Sri Lanka and U-Wei Bin Hajisaari of Malaysia were selected
by NHK for collaborative projects.
After the 1996 festival, Korean film director, Park Chul-Soo,
came to Fukuoka to direct an international public relations
video for the City of Fukuoka.

　Starting in 1996, the festival began passing out three editions
of its Festival News, a bulletin report of comments made by
festival participants to the audience, during the course of
its festivity.