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In 2003, the first Himalaya Film Festival (HFF) was organized in Amsterdam by Himalaya Archief Nederland, a Dutch NGO. The main objectives of the HFF are:

1. Presenting the real faces of the Himalayas through excellent films;
2. Reflecting on man’s relationship with Mother Nature through the Himalayas.

Until now, the over 50 carefully selected films from around the world have attracted more than 30.000 people to this annual 3-day festival. In addition, international producers, directors and experts are invited to the festival and various related programmes such as lectures, and concerts are held.

The Himalaya Film Festival Project will progress under the concept of ‘Let’s think about man’s relationship with Mother Nature through the Himalayas!’ Surely, our Himalayan network with film directors, experts and others will keep expanding.

In 2006, the festival was held in Tokyo (‘Himalaya Film Festival Tokyo 2006’), giving the Japanese a rare opportunity to take a closer look at the Himalayan world and to think about global environmental problems and human diversity. The Tokyo festival was quite successful and attracted many visitors.

HFFT 2006 also had a symposium about global warming with Junichi Nishizawa (Chancellor of the Tokyo Metropolitan University), Yuriko Koike (Minister of the Environment (at that time)), staff members of the World Wildlife Fund, and others. This symposium was broadcast on NHK, the Japanese public broadcasting corporation. Moreover, an invited Nepalese film director was introduced during the programme.

In 2007, the Himalaya Film Festival was held in Amsterdam for the fourth time. The main theme of the 2007 Festival was ‘Mapping the Tibetan World’. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s, Tibetan culture has had difficulty surviving. Especially now that there is a railway from the mainland of China to Tibet (Lhasa) and the cultural crisis increases. So, it was a really timely theme.

In 2008, we hold the festival in Tokyo as well as Amsterdam and got many audiences. In 2009, Kyoto and Kobe in West Japan became the new place for the film festival. And then, in 2009, NY will be our partner!

The project has been expanding steadily.