Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
After graduating from the Kyoto University in 1989, Yuji Sadai (Hyogo, Japón. 1966) worked for a film distribution company. In 1994, he established the distribution and production company Bitters End, Inc., one of the most active art house distribution and production companies in Japan.
He has produced and co-produced films including Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2005), Tokyo! (Bong Joon-ho, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, 2008), Cut (Amir Naderi, 2011), Land of Hope (Sion Sono, 2012), Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang Ke, 2013), Daguerrotype (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016), Centaur (Aktan Arym Kubat, 2016), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Nobuhiro Suwa, 2017) and Asako I & II (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Perlak, 2018).
In distribution, Bitters End has released works by directors like the Dardenne brothers, Bong Joon-ho, Otar Iosseliani, Danis Tanovic, Fatih Akin, Philippe Garrel, Béla Tarr, Hong Sang-soo, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Deniz Gamze Erguven, Carlos Vermut and Mikhael Hers.