Hello, this is Izumitani from Ehime Film Commission.
On June 26, at the 11th Japan FC Awards ceremony in Kobe, I was waiting backstage for my cue — reviewing the materials, preparing to present awards to film commissions and production professionals alike — when someone approached.
“Izumitani-san! It’s been a long time. Do you remember me?”
It was Masayuki Fukui, now a Line Producer at Toei Kyoto Studio.
I couldn’t place him immediately. Then: “Twenty-three years ago — I was a film student at Osaka University of Arts, shooting my graduation project. You helped us. I can’t thank you enough for what you did back then.”
Something clicked. “Were you the student who filmed on the island?”
“Yes! That’s me. And I want you to know — I got my job at Toei because of that film.”
Twenty-three years later. He had held onto that memory all this time.
Twenty-three years ago, Ehime FC had just turned one. We were hungry for experience, and I had made it a practice to say yes to everything with a camera attached — student projects included — accompanying crews, making introductions, scouting locations, doing whatever the production needed. I had forgotten that particular shoot entirely. He had not.
The emotion of that moment hit before the ceremony had even begun.
Fukui-san has since worked his way up from production coordinator to production supervisor to his current role as Line Producer — a trajectory that speaks to real, steady achievement within one of Japan’s most prestigious studios.
And the reason he was at the Japan FC Awards that day? He was there to receive the Excellence in Production Department Award — a new prize introduced at last year’s 10th JFC Awards, created specifically to honor the often-invisible contribution of production staff who work most closely with film commissions.
The award was created because production departments are the backbone of any shoot and the primary day-to-day interface with FC teams — yet they rarely receive formal recognition. The Film Director’s Association, the Motion Picture Producers Federation, and the Association of Japanese Film Producers all endorsed the prize’s creation.
And now, of all people, I was the one handing the award to Fukui-san. To present him with that recognition — to have it come full circle, from an island shoot two decades ago to this stage — is the kind of moment that makes you remember exactly why this work matters.