Film critics, like any one else, have their pet causes -- films and careers they want to boost or bury. But unless they wield the clout of a Roger Ebert, they are just one voice in a choir that, with the Internet, is growing by the dozens every day. Singing as sweetly as they want about their favorite indie gem, they often have little way of knowing whether it matters to anyone but the director and his mother.
Serving on a film jury, as I did this year and last for the Japanese Eyes section of the Tokyo International Film Festival, is more like being a choirmaster. Together with fellow critics Hiroo Odaka and Tsuzuyo Inagaki, I could present not only a Best Picture Award and Special Award to two films (no splitting allowed), but 1 million yen cash prizes to the winners. In other words, instead of sending out our respective scribblings into the void, we could, as they say, make a difference.
This year we had 11 films to choose from -- and no hesitation in selecting the winner, Mitsuo Yanagimachi's "Kamyu Nante Shiranai (Who's Camus Anyway?)." Screened in the Directors Fortnight section of this year's Cannes festival, Yanagimachi's first feature film in a decade begins as a light-hearted semi-autobiographical examination of modern college life, with a plot revolving around a chaotic student film production. (Yanagimachi himself teaches film at Rikkyo University.)