HE is credited with restoring red-carpet glamour to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, culminating in a star-studded UK premiere of the blockbuster animation Brave.
As the last of the champagne bottles were cleared away after the Disney-Pixar movie closed the festival, artistic director Chris Fujiwara revealed he hopes to stay on after his contract expires in September.
The film critic, author and lecturer, who took over the ailing festival last year with a reduced budget reported to be in the region of £1.5m, told The Herald: "I very much want to stay.
"I expect to be discussing the question of whether it will be renewed very soon – hopefully sooner rather than later, so I can start working on next year's programme, securing the right film-makers and distributors, and moving our plans for the festival forward to showcase Brazil, India and Russia.
"In the short time I've been in Edinburgh I've been made to feel very welcome. It's a beautiful and very cultured city, which is important for an event like this.
"The fact that I've been able to do the programme I wanted to do is encouraging."
Mr Fujiwara is credited with restoring a sense of occasion to the film festival, which last year dropped the red carpet because it was "boring" and "stale".
The high-profile opener on June 20, William Friedkin's darkly comic Killer Joe, starring Matthew McConaughey, was attended by Friedkin and star Gina Gershon, along with actors Jim Broadbent and Elliott Gould – the chairmen of the festival's two awards juries – DJ and presenter Edith Bowman, actors Kate Dickie and Brian Cox, comedians Dylan Moran and Craig Hill, and novelist Ian Rankin.
The UK premiere of Brave, which is set in the Scottish Highlands, was attended by co-stars Kelly Macdonald, Craig Ferguson, Kevin McKidd and Robbie Coltrane at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.
Actor Robert Carlyle missed his festival masterclass earlier in the schedule due to a nose operation. However, the star recovered to attend the screening on Thursday of his new film, California Solo, in which he plays an ageing Britpop star, and paid tribute to the festival for putting it on.
Mr Fujiwara said: "The gala premieres went like a firecracker. The excitement of seeing the stars on it is part of what the red carpet is for.
"It dresses up the space and the street and the theatre, and makes the event special. It's good for cinema to have that glamour."
The decision to move the EIFF from August to June last year hit ticket sales, with 34,464 sold in 2011 compared to 44,456 in 2010. The final number of tickets sold for this year's 12-day festival has not yet been released, but Mr Fujiwara says early indications are positive.
Asked whether his festival should be judged on ticket sales alone, he replied: "The Edinburgh International Film Festival should be judged on the responses of the film press, the critics and journalists; the responses of the audiences as told through social media and blogs and comments on our website.
"I take my title seriously. As artistic director I'm expected to have an artistic vision for the sector and a properly curated programme. Feedback suggests that I have delivered that. That makes me very pleased and happy with the programme I put together.
"It was good for us to have high-profile names such as Jim Broadbent to head the jury for the prestigious Michael Powell prize for Best British Feature Film and Elliot Gould on the International jury. Both were very complimentary of the programme."
On his appointment last September, Mr Fujiwara, a New Yorker who lives in Japan, said he wanted to focus on "independent world cinema" and on retrospectives, and to bring filmmakers to Edinburgh.
Mr Fujiwara said he was open to the possibility of moving back into the main festival month of August. However, he has pointed out that the budget for this year's event was "very restrictive" and said further resources were needed urgently.
l Brave was last night knocked off the top spot at the US box office by Ted, a comedy about a foul-mouthed teddy bear. The Disney-Pixar animation was the third-biggest movie last week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article