In the summer of 2020, a new art festival, the Ibaraki Film Arts Festival, was born in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many cultural events have been forced to be canceled, and people are inevitably feeling restricted in their ability to express themselves and feel. In this situation, we launched an art festival that uses film as a means of expression and is accessible to everyone in every region, and we solicited short films of 8 minutes and 19 seconds or less from a wide range of regions and ages. 8 minutes and 19 seconds is the time it takes for light to reach us from the sun. We have always regarded art, which has faced itself and society sincerely, as "light," and aimed to deliver the expressions of our times to many people across regions through film, a work of light that has no substance. In previous Ibaraki Film Arts Festivals, we have incorporated a variety of evaluation methods, from deliberations by judges with specialized knowledge and experience, to debates by citizen judges from multiple generations, and online voting that anyone can participate in, in an attempt to provide various perspectives for considering contemporary film expression. After that, we held screening exhibitions and exhibitions in vacant facilities in Ibaraki City, providing a place where citizens could experience a wide range of films in their daily lives.

Now in its third year, the Ibaraki Visual Arts Festival has been renewed and will run for two years. It will be shaped by two axes: the "Competition" where works are solicited and new judges are invited to judge the works, and the "Presentation" where the winners are announced and the works are screened at various locations in Ibaraki City. In addition, we are planning events and workshops that accompany the two axes of the "Competition" and "Presentation", as well as pre-events that connect them, and we aim to create an art festival that can reach more creators and citizens throughout the two years from application to screening.

We hope that "film", which is closely related to time, will connect the past and the present and courageously step into the future.