Tokyo, Japan – Japanese public broadcaster NHK says it will be holding a public screening of content in its cutting-edge SUPER Hi-VISION (8K) format at the Cannes Film Festival set to be held next month. The screening will include the highlight of the first 8K narrative comedy short film Beauties À La Carte directed by the Toshio Lee based on an original story by Kundo Koyama.

NHK began developing the SUPER Hi-VISION (8K) in 1995 and has 7,680 by 4,320 pixels — four times the resolution of 4K and 16 times that of current HD. NHK performed the first live 8K transmission from London Olympics venues in 2012 and aims to begin experimental 8K broadcasts in Japan in time for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. Viewers at the public screening in Cannes will get to experience spectacular coverage of the carnival along with content in various genres.

Nobuhiro Haneda, NHK’s senior manager in charge of 8K content production, said: “The new technology is driving new content. We learned from our 8K initiative at the London Olympics that viewers and broadcasters are tremendously excited about 8K. The production of Beauties À La Carte is part of our efforts to understand the technical challenges of producing drama in this new format. I hope we can work with film‐industry professionals to further explore the possibilities of using 8K for feature films.”