Toronto-based film executive and programmer Aki Takabatake has launched what’s billed as Canada’s first distribution company focusing solely on Japanese films.

Momo Films focuses on “quality Japanese films” and TV projects, as well as productions focused on Japan, for Canadian distribution and the international marketplace.

The website says the Toronto company can also provide services in production, casting, translation, interpretation, sales, and acquisition for any projects related to Japan. Takabatake tells Playback Daily such services can apply to Japan-Canada coproductions, noting that if there is any opportunity of coproduction between Canada and Japan, she’d like to be involved.

The company’s CEO is Takabatake (pictured right), who started the Toronto Japanese Film Festival at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in 2012 and continues to act as head programmer and artistic director.

Momo Films’ first title for distribution is family refugee tale My Small Land (pictured above), written and directed by Emma Kawawada, and produced by established filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s production company, Bun-Buku.

The coming-of-age drama, which won a Special Mention from the Amnesty International Jury at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, will be screened with English subtitles in select theatres across Canada. Confirmed cinemas so far include Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox, The Cinematheque in Vancouver, and Cinematheque Quebecoise in Montreal.

A graduate of the University of British Columbia, where she studied film, Takabatake got her start as a film buyer at a Japanese distribution company in Tokyo. She’s also worked in the programming department of the Toronto International Film Festival and as an associate producer for the Canada/U.S. copro series Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan, produced by Toronto’s Cream Productions and commissioned for Netflix and Blue Ant Media’s Smithsonian Canada channel, and the upcoming Canadian documentary film Hand-Drawn.

Takabatake is also a sales agent for Canadian films targeting the Japanese market, and has organized Telefilm’s Perspective Canada initiative in Tokyo. She continues to help Canadian films tap into the Japanese market and work on Japanese-related film and TV projects.