Three Continents Festival
Born in Nagano Prefecture, Furumaya was attending Nihon University when his 16mm film, "Shakunetsu no dojjibōru", won the grand prize at the Pia Film Festival. That earned him a Pia Scholarship to make his first theatrical feature, "This Window Is Yours", a film that won the first Dragons and Tigers Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival and helped him get the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award in 1994. His film "Bad Company" won a Tiger Award and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival. "Sayonara Midori-chan" also was the runner-up in the competition at the 2005 Three Continents Festival. He has also worked on such television programs as "Mori no Asagao".