Celebrating its 18th year, our Festival exhibited a wide selection of films from countries and regions across Asia ranging from Turkey in the west, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan in the north, and Singapore in the south. Our diversified line-up of motion pictures ranged from the works of new film directors to those of the maestros.
　As a special feature, we exhibited four films from Turkey, a country receiving much attention lately at international film festivals. Our other special screening was the ‘Father Trilogy’ by Ang Lee, the director from Taiwan who continues his filmmaking career, moving about from and to such places as Hong Kong, the United States and China. The “Father Trilogy” we exhibited included Lee’s feature film directional debut.

　 Our opening night film was “Bliss” directed by Abdullah Oguz from Turkey, a motion picture we included in our special feature of Turkish films. The audience broke out in cheers when Talat Bulut, the leading actor of the film, gave a speech in Japanese. The Fukuoka Audience Award in its 3rd year was awarded to “In the Name of God” from Pakistan directed by Shoaib Mansoor, a film addressing many of the problems and issues surrounding Muslim communities today.

　Events of our 2008 Festival were more enriching than last year. Along with our special screening of Turkish films, a forum entitled “A Renaissance of Turkish Cinema” was held to discuss the present state of Turkish films and to explore the fascination behind Turkish cinema. Panelists included a film director from Turkey, a Turkish researcher and a graduate student from Turkey. In addition, a reception entitled “Turkish Night” was co-hosted by the Honorary Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey in Fukuoka to which the Turkish ambassador to Japan was invited along with local business people to deepen exchanges between Turkey, Kyushu and Fukuoka.
　A symposium entitled “Asia with Diaspora Ⅱ – Ang Lee, the ‘Chimera of Asian Films’” was organized jointly by our festival and Fukuoka University in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the university’s Faculty of Humanities, Department of East Asian Studies. The symposium attracted a considerable audience, centered on students.
　For the first time, day care services for infants and little children were made available to parents to provide them with an opportunity to appreciate Asian films. Furthermore Voice-Over Screenings were also held for the first time for elementary school students who often have difficulty following subtitles. Such screenings had volunteer voice actors and actresses dub the script live on the spot.
　Additionally, “Cafe Talk”, a talk show style event, was held at the Culture Information Artelier, which offered one drink with the admission. The greatly successful event provided an opportunity for the public to get acquainted with festival guests.
　Prior to the opening of the festival, monthly lecture courses were held from March through July, highlighting as their themes, motion pictures from Korea, China and Southeast Asia. Each lecture attracted an over capacity amount of applicants making us realize the existence of an increasing number of Asian film lovers.