The first festival of the new century has had the exhibition
of 50 films, equal to the previous year and the largest number
in the festival’s history, from 15 countries and regions, and
the attendance has reached a record high, with more than 20,000,
coming to the 11th festival. Looking back the 2001 festival,
the whole 11 days of the event was in full of activity, but
just before the opening day, terrorism attacked New York and
some considerable influence fell upon even the festival. Several
guests gave up flying to Fukuoka because the flight system around
the U. S. was paralysed. Majid Majidi, the director of "Baran,"
was staying in Canada when the disaster happened. He could not
make it for the opening, and his message was read at the ceremony
instead. (He arrived in Fukuoka at last four days later.) "Baran"
deals with refugees from Afghanistan, so it offered an opportunity
to the audience to think about what was really happening in
the world or the peace itself, and people saw it with tears.
Along with "Iranian Film Collection" introducing four
new productions from Iran including "Baran," the diversity
of the seven films making up of "Chinese Language Film
Collection" drew the attention of the audience. Malaysian
Director Aziz M. Osman who presented his new two films and the
Thai film "Behind the Painting" that carried out its
location shooting in Japan, were also much talked about.
Meanwhile, received favourably in Fukuoka, the two entries from
Mongolia, "A Vanishing Trade" and "The Shadow,"
were exhibited at the Film Network Festival 2001 in Tokyo in
November to be introduced to Asian cinema fans in Tokyo area.

　Last not but least, Director Marilou Diaz-Abaya, the 12th Fukuoka
Asian Arts and Culture Prize laureate in 2001, has closely associated
with the festival. Diaz-Abaya who is one of the most prominent
directors of the Philippines is proud of having presented six
films at Fukuoka, the largest number as a director, and she
is one of those who stand out in the world stage as a result
of exhibitions of their works at Fukuoka. The magnificent "Jose
Rizal" (1998) was commercially released in the Iwanami
Hall in Tokyo at the end of 2001.