In the Chinese astrological calendar, one of twelve animals is assigned to each year and so, after twelve years, the first cycle in life is completed. The Osaka European Film Festival began in 1994 and this year, we reach the end of our first cycle of life. To celebrate the completion of this first cycle and to symbolise our 12th anniversary, we have decided to hold twelve events in twelve different venues of Osaka.

The core of the Festival naturally consists of a selection of recent feature films presented for the first time in Japan. The seven films in this section deal with contemporary situations in Europe, with humour or with gravity, portraying a crisis or crises. To cite only two of these, let me mention the winner of the first prize at the recent Montreal Festival, Off Screen, a psychological thriller inspired by true events which shook the Netherlands in 2002, just a few months after the terrorist acts of 9/11. It is the five years of preparation for the outrages of that terrible day in 2001 which The Hamburg Cell retraces with subtlety and sensitivity. These two films remind us that the apparently most senseless acts waged against mankind have human beings behind them.

Moving to more cheerful topics, the 2005 ’Year of Germany in Japan’ provides us with the opportunity to survey a cinematographic production in full expansion, since the land of Goethe has actually become the second largest film-producing nation in Europe. Our audience will be able to discover, or rediscover, some of the most notable German films of the last few months through a retrospective evocatively titled ﾔVIEWFINDERSﾕ. And for fans of animation, an ambitious exhibition shows the models, sketches and scenery components used in the realisation of fifteen animated shorts which will be screened at the same site.

Among the other celebrations, allow me to draw your attention to the programme for the 25th anniversary of the twinning of the ports of Osaka and Le Havre, and to a new initiative - and certainly one of the happiest discoveries of this Festival: the programme of films conceived and created by the Finnish children of the Pirkanma Film Centre.

Last year more than 39,000 people travelled to attend the films, lectures, events and exhibitions which our team had carefully put together over a year of work. We hope that this year even more of you will come. It is our aim to make these three weeks of festivities a true celebration of understanding, of tolerance, of friendship, of fellowship, of intelligence, of invention, of creativity: all qualities that the Festival has tried since its inception to bring to the minds and emotions of the public in Japan.

Since it is impossible to evoke in these few words the richness and variety of this 12th Festival, I invite you without further ado to discover the contents for yourself through the text and photographs illustrating this brochure. With the hope that this yearﾕs programme will fully meet your expectations, your enthusiasm and your curiosity, I would like once more to affirm the pleasure that it will give us to meet you at one of the twelve prestigious locations hosting the Festival.

Finally, in the name of the whole Festival committee, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards the individuals, the private companies and the official organisations which have once again made it possible to hold this 12th Festival.