Cannes Film Market Claire Lebeau TIFFCOM and the Marché du Film will hold a second Japan IP Market at the 2027 Cannes Film Festival, extending this year’s inaugural partnership, which was designed to connect Japanese rights holders with international producers and buyers.
The announcement was made Thursday during TIFFCOM in Tokyo, at the session “Beyond Country of Honour: Building the Next Global Partnerships with Japan.” Alexandra Zakharchenko, the Cannes market’s head of industry programs, was among the speakers.
The initiative is designed to facilitate adaptations, acquisitions and international collaborations involving Japanese intellectual property, giving overseas companies direct access to rights holders through pitches, targeted one-on-one meetings and industry discussions. Japan has long been viewed as a treasure trove of bankable manga, gaming and other forms of IP, but the country’s unique rights structures and ways of doing business have made collaboration more difficult for potential international partners. The TIFFCOM-Marché du Film partnership is designed to smooth that process.
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Its first edition launched in Cannes in May 2026 as part of Japan’s Country of Honor program at the Marché du Film. Participating companies included Kadokawa, Shochiku and Toei, while speakers included Tetsu Fujimura, founder and CEO of Filosophia and an executive producer of Netflix’s live-action One Piece.
The Cannes event is a counterpart to TIFFCOM’s Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake, which launched in 2025 and presents adaptation rights to manga and novels alongside film remake rights. Continuing the partnership gives Japanese companies opportunities to develop international relationships at both the Cannes gathering in May and the Tokyo market in October.
Organizers plan to announce the participating companies and further details of the 2027 program in the coming months.
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