The PFF Award Competition is the main feature of PIA Film Festival, which was launched in 1977. It places no restrictions whatsoever on the eligibility of its entrants and completely disregards their nationality, age, or sex; whether the film entered is on film or video; how long or short it is; or whether it is a drama, a documentary, or animation. In this regard, PFF Award is the most open of all competitions in the world's film festival circuit. Anyone can participate in this competition.
*Total entries to date: 16,987
*Total Award winning works to date: 490

The PFF Award is the main feature of PFF and is a competition for young artists who dream of becoming film directors. After PFF in Tokyo, the finalist's films will travel to other major cities in Japan: Nagoya, Kansai, Sendai, Fukuoka and Kanazawa in 2008. Also, PFF has always been at the forefront of cinema, introducing works of rising talents both from within and outside of Japan whose films are rich with independent spirit such as Hou Hsiao Hsien in 1984 and Naomi Kawase in 1993. In addition, since the 1980s, PFF has been offering retrospectives of renown filmmakers whose works are difficult to see theatrically such as Francois Truffaut, Luis Bunnuel, Masahiro Makino, and Ken Russel. Recent programs in this section include Michael Haneke in 2001, Robert Altman in 2007 and Douglas Sirk in 2008. PFF tries to present the original versions of these films as much as possible.

PFF Award winners as well as the PFF Scholarship funded films have taken part in international film festivals a total of over 300 times. PFF has been introducing new Japanese talent abroad since the film "Behind", directed by Naoto Yamakawa, was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1982. "Bare-assed Japan", which won the grand prize at PFF Award 2007, made its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September 2007, then screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival along with director Yuya Ishii's other feature films. He also won the Edward Yang New Talent Award at the Asian Film Awards. The world recognition of PFF is growing year by year.

PFF distributes and promotes the PFF Scholarship titles and PFF Award films throughout Japan. The films are commercially screened at various theaters, on television, sent on the international film festival circuit or released on video or DVD so that it may reach a wider audience. This entire process is designed to establish a young, talented filmmaker in his/her chosen field.