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The program of the 25th Nippon Connection Film Festival is complete! From May 27 to June 1, the world’s largest platform for Japanese film will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in Frankfurt am Main, offering six days of immersion in Japan’s film and cultural scene. Around 100 short and feature-length films will be screened at ten venues, including 67 premieres of current Japanese films. In addition, over 60 filmmakers and artists from Japan will travel to Frankfurt am Main to present their works to the public. Around 70 cultural events and a free Japanese market with various food and craft stalls round off the program. Detailed information and tickets for all films and events are available at NipponConnection.com.

This year’s film selection presents a diverse cross-section of current Japanese cinema. The Nippon Connection Film Festival will open on May 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm with Tetsu Maeda’s comedy 90 Years Old – So What?...

The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold I Animate: Animation Film Festival starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Photo from Fdcp

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is top billed by renowned world cinema titles led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing)”, the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow,”and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Other acclaimed full-length films to be screened are “Cleaners”by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre,”Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai.

The festival also includes short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold “I Animate: Animation Film Festival” starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw” (The Missing), the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow”, and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Acclaimed Asian full-length features to be screened are “Cleaners” by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai. “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, and “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger are the other world cinema titles in the festival.

I Animate also includes Philippine short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

Since its debut at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight category, Ghost Cat Anzu amassed online buzz for being one of the most uniquely designed and entertaining animated films of the year. Co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita and Yōko Kuno and written by Shinji Imaoka, based on Takashi Imashiro’s manga of the same name, Ghost Cat Anzu centers around a young girl named Karin (Noa Gotō) who is left in the care of her grandfather when her father abandons her to fix his gambling debts. While living at the temple, she encounters a crass, but helpful, ghost cat named Anzu (Mirai Moriyama). Their budding-heads relationship leads to a series of hijinks as they encounter other quirky spirits in their rural town who seek to help Karin find her mother in the afterlife.

Alongside its unique storyline, the film also is a French-Japanese co-production between Shin-Ei Animation and Miyu Productions.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

2024 saw the flicker of a major flame in the strands of cinema that have my heart the most.

It was a year where sex, romance, and representation were back on the menu in exciting new configurations, mirrored behind the camera and in front of the screen. Films that made us feel, self-reflect, introspect, change our minds, and realize. In a sociopolitical climate increasingly intent on sidelining and disavowing empathy at every turn, it’s comforting to know that we are not immune to movies.

Favorite Big Screen Rediscoveries: Zerophilia, Moving, Bumpkin Soup, Manji, Their Last Love Affair

Honorable Mentions: Caught by the Tides, Summer Solstice, Gift, Ghost Cat Anzu, You Burn Me

10. Happyend (Neo Sora)

In 2024, Japanese cinema began to travel and shift in new ways. The...

For younger anime fans, it may be difficult to remember a time when Haruhi Suzumiya and her anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, were cultural phenomena. It isn't hyperbolic to say that Haruhi dominated the anime scene in the late 2000s, only to disappear seemingly overnight by the 2010s. This could all be blamed on the anime's controversial second season, which was so divisive that it killed any enthusiasm Haruhi's once-loyal fanbase had. Thankfully, this wasn't Haruhi's end. Shortly after the anime ended, Haruhi returned in the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

But instead of just picking up where Season 2 stopped and getting right back to the Sos Brigade's usual shenanigans, the movie deconstructed everything about the anime. Additionally, the movie effectively ended The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on Christmas day. As mean-spirited as this may sound, especially for a Christmas movie, this wasn't a bad thing. More importantly,...

2024 was a year filled with many film releases, most of them based on pre-existing IPs or sequels. However, there were a few exceptions that completely stole the hearts of critics, moviegoers, and even fellow people in the entertainment industry.

In a feature piece on IndieWire with 65 directors sharing their favorite films of 2024, comedian and director of the critically acclaimed series Barry, Bill Hader, also weighed in. With a multitude of films to choose from, Hader opted for an animated indie film: Flow. The Latvian-directed animated film received critical acclaim and won numerous awards and nods, including a Critics' Choice Award nomination and a Golden Globes nomination.

Related Mufasa Takes Top Box Office Spot Over the Christmas Stretch, Nosferatu Debuts Strong

Mufasa: The Lion King takes the top spot over the 5-day holiday stretch at the box office.

Flow tells the heartwarming story of a black cat that finds itself in a flood.

The Japan Foundation is bringing a thematic exploration of justice and morality to U.K. screens, featuring premieres of new Japanese releases alongside retrospective screenings.

Titled “Am I Right? Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema,” the lineup includes “The Moon” (2023), directed by Yuya Ishii, which tackles institutional abuse through the story of a former writer working at a facility for disabled people. Another highlight is Bunji Sotoyama’s “Tea Friends” (2022), examining elderly care and sexuality through the lens of a senior escort service.

Among the contemporary offerings, Kosai Sekine’s “Stay Mum” (2024) follows an estranged daughter’s encounter with a potentially abused child, while Shinji Araki’s “Penalty Loop” (2023) explores revenge through a time-loop narrative.

The program marks notable premieres including Yu Irie’s “A Girl Named Ann” (2024) and Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s “To Mom, With Love” (2024). The animation segment features “Ghost Cat Anzu” (2024), about an 11-year-old girl’s supernatural journey with a talking cat.

Ghost Cat Anzu has quickly become a must-watch film for anime fans, especially those who hold Studio Ghibli’s works dear. Combining fantastical elements with emotionally resonant storytelling, this co-directed feature by Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita is the perfect watch. With stunning visuals, absurd humor, and a deep emotional core, the film takes audiences on a journey that feels like a darker, more chaotic cousin to classics like Spirited Away. While it may not dethrone Ghibli's masterpieces, Ghost Cat Anzu is undeniably a delightful and meaningful addition to the world of anime movies.

At its heart, Ghost Cat Anzu follows the journey of 11-year-old Karin, a young girl struggling with grief and familial disconnection. Her life changes dramatically when she encounters Anzu, a larger-than-life ghost cat with a mischievous personality who has a surprisingly profound impact on her. The film blends Karin’s emotional struggles with Anzu’s whimsical...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally released the list of movies that are eligible for Oscar nominations this season. The list contains 31 animated features, 169 documentary features, and 85 international features. Out of these 285 eligible films, five belong to the Japanese anime art form, and the one that fans are most excited about is Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Look Back.

Look Back | Credit: Studio Durian

Known majorly for creating Chainsaw Man, Fujimoto shocked the entire manga community when he released Look Back in 2021. The story was so intriguing that Studio Durian decided to adapt it into an anime film that was released in June 2024. And as expected, the anime film was also appreciated a lot by the fans and the industry.

Tatsuki Fujimoto is one of the very few anime creators who have been eligible for an Oscar nomination. It looks like he might be following in the steps of Hayao Miyazaki,...

The Academy has unveiled the list of feature films that are eligible for consideration in the animated feature, documentary feature Film, and international feature at the 2025 Oscars.

In animation, 31 films will vie for one of the five spots, including “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

In documentary feature, 169 films are eligible. Among them are “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Martha,” “I Am: Celine Dion,” and “Dahomey,” which is Senegal’s submission for international feature.

In international feature, there are 85 hopefuls, including frontrunner “Emilia Pérez” (France), “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany), “Kneecap” (Ireland), and “Flight 404” (Egypt).

The shortlists of 15 films for documentary and international features will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will be held on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pulled back the curtain on the films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature categories for the 97th Academy Awards next year.

The list includes 31 toon features, 169 docs and international pics from 85 countries. Preliminary voting for the 97th Oscars runs December 9-13, and all three shortlists will be revealed December 17. The Oscars will be handed out Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

Here are the animated, documentary and international features eligible for the 2024 Oscars:

Best Animated Feature

Art College 1994

Captain Avispa

Chicken for Linda!

The Colors Within

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Despicable Me 4

Flow

The Garfield Movie

Ghost Cat Anzu

The Glassworker

The Imaginary

Inside Out 2

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Kung Fu Panda 4

Living Large

Look Back

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Mars Express

Memoir of a Snail...

The Academy has unveiled its list of eligible films for the 97th Oscars in the animated, documentary, and international feature categories, spotlighting various blockbusters and critically lauded works. Submissions span major studios and independent filmmakers alike, and the competition promises to be one of the most competitive as films seek nominations.

A total of 31 animated feature films are in contention this year, including DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” IFC Films’ “Memoir of a Snail,” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which recently became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. While this year’s number is slightly down from 33 submissions in 2023, it marks an increase from the 27 entries in 2022, reflecting a robust year for animation. Among the list also is Janus Film and Sideshow’s “Flow,” which will also compete in the international feature race for Latvia.

Nominees in the Animated Feature category are determined by the Academy’s Animation Branch members,...

There are 31 animated films, 85 international films and 169 documentaries competing in the 2024 Oscar races for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature, the Academy announced on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, contenders include “Flow,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Piece by Piece,” “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rorhirrim,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “The Wild Robot.”

In the international category, the list includes “Emilia Perez,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and “I’m Still Here.” The list of eligible films was reported exclusively by TheWrap in October.

In documentaries, the field includes “Sugarcane,” “Dahomey,” “No Other Land,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Daughters,” among many others.

In all three categories, Academy members are given lists of films that are required viewing, but are eligible to view and vote for films outside their lists as...

A total of 31 animated features, 169 documentary features and 85 international features are eligible for Oscar nominations this season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, high-profile studio films like Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Universal/DreamWorks’s The Wild Robot and acclaimed indies like Memoir of a Snail are joined in the running by longer shots like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a film jettisoned by Warner Bros. that wound up with the distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

The documentary feature race, meanwhile, includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Nat Geo’s Sugarcane, Netflix’s Daughters and MTV’s Black Box Diaries; two that count Malala Yousafzai as an executive producer, Apple’s Bread & Roses and The Last of the Sea Women, and two that count Jennifer Lawrence as an EP,...

Hello, Love, Again, the widest domestic release for a Filipino film, now holds a record for the highest opening weekend for the same with $2.4 million and a no. 8 spot.

Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain crossed $3 million at the box office following its expansion to more than 1,000 theaters in week 3, landing at no. 9 with a $2.3 million gross. Eisenberg stars with Kieran Culkin.

Anora is at no. 10 at $1.8 million on 1,500 screens in week 5 with a cume of $10.5 million.

All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia, had the best ever opening for Sideshow & Janus Films with $51k on three screens in NY and LA. Demand outstripped supply on both coasts with multiple sellouts at all three locations.

Hello, Love, Again is a great marketing story as Abramorama, in collaboration with Ajmc (Amorette Jones Media Consulting), released...

Partners Sideshow Pictures and Janus Films open All We Imagine As Light on Friday and will follow the playbook for Drive My Car, the indie distributor’s first film that began a slow rollout about this time in 2021, collecting awards, nice grosses and finishing with an International Picture Oscar win amid a flurry of nominations. Payal Kapadia’s film, among the best reviewed of the year, was snubbed by India for an Oscar selection. Its distributor has something to say about that and is campaigning for other key categories.

Also this weekend, comedy A Real Pain with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin from Searchlight Pictures hits 900-plus screens in a major expansion. Sony Pictures Classics’ Saorsie Ronan starrer The Outrun, which opened in early October and was down to 19 screens, is jumping back to 200 by popular demand, which is nice to hear.

Gkids debuts Ghost Cat Anzu on 300-plus screens.

While those who rarely engage with anime they’re often surprised by the diversity within the genre. For every big series about fighting titans, ninjas, or super-powered beings, there are smaller movies and shows that handle low-stakes life. Adapted from the popular manga series by Takashi Imashiro, Ghost Cat Anzu allows its silly characters room to stretch their legs. While it’s nice to have a mostly relaxing experience, a self-important title character upends the adaptation. Ghost Cat Anzu is mostly fine, but in an era with so many great anime films, it’s a frustrating miss.

Related The Apothecary Diaries Holds an Upper Hand Over Other Shojo Anime Because of This Reason That Has Nothing to Do with Romance Ghost Cat Anzu Plot

When fifth-grader Karin (Noa Gotô) is left with her grandfather in the countryside, she has to adjust her life. Her grandfather – who also serves as a...

Since premiering at Cannes earlier this year, Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s “Ghost Cat Anzu” has often been likened to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away,” and it’s easy to appreciate why. For one thing, anime films begin with a young girl — in this case, a purple-haired 11-year-old named Karin — becoming separated from their parents at a pivotal moment in their lives, only to wander into a wild (but pointedly matter-of-fact) fantasy world full of spirits who see her as something between a novelty and a nuisance.

In “Ghost Cat Anzu,” however, that world is still very much our own, and the heroine’s coming-of-age isn’t contingent upon finding her way back from the underworld so much as it’s contingent upon her finding some beauty in the strangeness of our brief time above ground. “Ghost Cat Anzu” may be much sillier and less substantial than “Spirited Away,...

Ready to meet “Ghost Cat Anzu?”

The French/Japanese co-production, based on the manga of the same name by Takashi Imashiro, hits theaters on Friday courtesy of GKids — and we’ve got an exclusive clip, which you can watch below.

In “Ghost Cat Anzu,” a young girl named Karin (voiced by Noa Gotô) accompanies her father to the countryside. It’s there that she encounters the title character, an oafish supernatural entity who hustles as a masseuse and wears his cell phone around his neck (he is voiced by Mirai Moriyama). Together, Anzu and Karin set off on an adventure, which crosses over into spiritual realms and sees them encountering all sorts of bizarre characters.

The movie premiered as part of the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It played the Annecy International Film Festival less than a month later. It was directed by Yôko Kuno (making...

The following contains spoilers from Ghost Cat Anzu, which premieres Friday, Nov. 15.

Anime feature films have been successful telling fabulous coming of age tales in which an adorable mascot helps a conflicted child mature. Ghost Cat Anzu doesn't try to reinvent the wheel when a confused pre-teen finds herself emotionally abandoned and suddenly in the orbit of a ludicrous ghost cat who makes Garfield dull. And therein lies the issue: Ghost Cat Anzu comes across as paint-by-numbers sentimental storytelling.

Ghost Cat Anzu is rich in adventure, madcap silliness, and abject grief and loss. Co-directed by Yoko Kuno in her feature directorial debut and Nobuhiro Yamashita in his first anime production, Ghost Cat Anzu feels like the darker, more twisted cousin to Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. It dresses itself up as a silly and cute story, but theres a nihilistic and cynical underbelly to this fantastical story. Ghost Cat Anzu...

Overseas revenues of Japanese animation exceeded local consumption for only the second time last year. But the export-led boom is expected to continue, the Association of Japanese Animations said on Thursday at Tiffcom, the rights market that accompanies the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Overseas revenues hit JPY17.2 trillion in 2023, compared to JPY16.2 trillion for Japanese revenues, an Aja spokesman, Masuda Hiromichi said. The only previous time overseas was bigger, in 2020, was attributed to a Covid-era aberration.

“We expect overseas to continue growing, he said, while the Japanese domestic market may make only slow progress due to a low birth rate and an aging population,” Masuda said. Anime earns the biggest share of its revenues in Japan from related products, with characters licensed to Pachinko gaming firms exceeding streaming revenues and far outstripping TV or theatrical revenues.

Even if Pachinko is not a growth market, it is not clear that the gloomy prognosis is entirely justified,...

Japan’s animation industry generated $22bn (¥3.3tn) in 2023, the highest number on record and a 14% increase on 2022, according to the Association of Japanese Animations (Aja).

The industry group, which has been releasing annual anime industry reports since 2009, revealed the results of its latest survey at the Tiffcom market in Tokyo today (October 31).

Aja’s findings also revealed that overseas anime revenues surpassed those of the domestic market in 2023, with overseas revenues making up 51.5%, or $11.25bn(¥1.72tn), and domestic 49.5%, or $10.6 billion (¥1.62 trillion). It marks the second time overseas topped domestic, the first being in 2020. With anime’s popularity continuing to expand...

It doesn’t happen often that a long feature animation polarises film critics to such an extent as Yoko Kuno & Nobuhiro Yamashita‘s “Ghost Cat Anzu” did after its world premiere in the Directors Fortnight section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Its animation style was called anything from bleak or ugly to unique & beautiful and the plotline was criticized for being undercooked, and even all over the place. But the film continues to travel the world regardless. Its second significant station was at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival, followed by the beloved genre Ff Fantasia, where it won the Audience Award Gold for Best Animated Feature.

Finally catching up with “Ghost Cat Anzu” at the Viennale, the annual feast for cinephiles in the Austrian capital Vienna, a place that didn’t pay too much attention to the animation in its 62-year-long history had a special taste to it,...

"I've got a favor to ask. I want to see my Mom."...

The 7th Annual Animation Is Film Festival wrapped up with the announcement that Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” took the Grand Prize, while “Memoir of a Snail” won the Special Jury Prize and tied with “The Colors Within” for the Audience Award. In the Shorts section, the Grand Prize went to “Wander to Wonder,” and the Special Jury Prize went to “A Crab in the Pool.”

The feature competition titles also included “Boys Go to Jupiter,” “Ghost Cat Anzu,” and “Sultana’s Dream.”

“Flow” is a wordess fantasy adventure about a world inhabited by animals, in which a black cat is forced to survive the aftermath of a flood on a boat with a capybara, lemur, stork, and golden retriever. Animated in the open-source Blender with its real-time engine, the CG animals have a soft quality while the environments are sharper. “Without a word of dialogue, Gints Zilbalodis weaves sound, music and...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April head the nominations for the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), each securing nods in five categories.

Both will compete for best film, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography and best performance at the awards, which will be presented on November 30 at a ceremony on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

All We Imagine As Light, billed as an ode to nocturnal Mumbai, premiered in Competition at Cannes, where it won the festival’s grand prix. April, the story of a Georgian ob-gyn who faces accusations,...

While it’s easy to get stuck in the muck of “Joker: Folie à Deux’s” underperformance or the continuation of Lionsgate’s losing streak, there was a bright spot at this week’s box office that marked a historic first — five of the Top 10 movies were animated features.

The animated movies that made the Top 10 are so varied, too, which speaks to the fact that animation as a medium is just as versatile and bespoke as live-action filmmaking. These films also came from a variety of studios, showcasing how important animated features are to every company’s bottom line. At one point, the marketplace was dominated by a handful of players. Not anymore.

The movies were DreamWorks’ painterly adventure “The Wild Robot” (No. 2); Focus Features’ animated music documentary “Piece by Piece” (No. 5); Paramount’s sci-fi spectacle “Transformers One” (No. 6); Crunchyroll and Sony’s domestic release of Japanese anime “My Hero Academia: You’re Next” (No.

The seventh Animation Is Film Festival (Aif) will open October 18 at the Tcl Chinese Theatres in Hollywood with the North American premiere of “The Colors Within,” the acclaimed anime from director Naoko Yamada (“A Silent Voice”), Japanese animation studio Science Saru, and distributor GKids. The prestigious festival (which runs through October 20) is produced by GKids in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and is considered an Oscar predictor.

“The Colors Within,” which had its world premiere this year at Annecy, concerns a high school student who forms a band with the ability to see the “colors” of others.

The centerpiece on October 19 will be the North American premiere of Warner Bros. Animation’s “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” from award-winning director Pete Browngardt (“Looney Tunes Cartoons”) and distributed in the U.S. by Ketchup Entertainment, which acquired it from Warner Bros. Daffy Duck...

After months in Japanese theaters, the theatrical run for the Look Back anime film, an adaptation of the one-shot by Tatsuki Fujimoto, seems to be winding up, with the last theatrical gift announced tonight culminating in Fujimoto and director Kiyotaka Oshiyama teaming up for a special shikishi. Alongside that news, the Tokyo International Film Festival revealed today that Look Back , as well as Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within and Kuno/Yamashita’s Ghost Cat Anzu , will be screened in the animation division of the event. The shikishi features Kyomoto drawn by director Kiyotaka Oshiyama watching on as Fujino, drawn by Fujimoto, draws manga. Alongside the aforementioned TIFF anime films, others in the animation line-up include A Few Moments of Cheers , Kurayukaba , the world premiere of Make a Girl , Totto-chan the Movie: The Little Girl at the Window and the Japanese premiere of The Wild Robot . The Tokyo International Film...

The Tokyo International Film Festival revealed its full 2024 lineup on Wednesday, including its main competition program and the Asian Future section for emerging regional filmmakers, as well as the all-new Women’s Empowerment section, which highlights nine films directed by women or involving female-focussed stories.

Tokyo’s 15-title main competition reveals a preference for securing world premieres over previously shown titles by established festival names. There are eight world premieres in the section — including Big World and My Friend An Delie by China’s Yang Lina and Dong Zijian, respectively; Papa from Hong Kong’s Philip Yung; The Englishman’s Papers from Portugal’s Sergio Graciano; and three Japanese features, among others (see full lineup below). Additional highlights include the international premiere of Midi Z’s The Unseen Sister and Huang Xi’s recent Toronto Film Festival entry Daughter’s Daughter, starring Sylvia Chang.

As previously announced, the competition titles will...

The Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled a competition section with as many Chinese titles as Japanese for its 37th edition.

Announced on Wednesday the festival’s full lineup runs to a compact 110 films, culled from a huge 2,023 applications, and functions partly as discovery event, partly as a Japanese showcase and also as best-of the year international art house compendium.

The 15-title competition includes Midi Z’s “The Unseen Sister,” “Big World,” by Yang Lina and “My Friend An Delie,” by Dong Zijian from China. Adding rising star Hong Kong director Philip Yung’s “Papa” and Huang Xi’s Sylvia Chang-starring “Daughter’s Daughter,” fresh from Toronto, and the competition will resound to Chinese accents. From Japan comes “She taught Me Serendipity,” by Ohku Akiko, “Teki Cometh,” by Yoshida Daihachi and “Lust in the Rain,” which is a Japan-Taiwan coproduction directed by Katayama Shinzo.

Other competition selections include “The Englishman’s Papers,...

“Ghost Cat Anzu” is a wild new Japanese-produced animated feature, directed by Yōko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita for Shin-Ei Animation and Miyu Productions, based on the manga comics by Takashi Imashiro, starring Mirai Moriyama and Noa Gotō, now playing internationally in theaters, with a Notth American release November 15, 2024:

“..young girl ‘Karin’ accompanies her father ‘Tetsuya’ to the ‘Sousei-Ji’ntemple, where her grandfather lives. Tetsuya has come to the temple to ask his father for money to repay his debts and leaves Karin at the temple when he is refused the money, promising to return on the anniversary of her mother's death.

“At the temple, Karin encounters ‘Anzu’, a cat who walks and talks like a human, uses a cell phone and moped, and works as a masseuse.

“Karin and Anzu develop a bond and travel to Tokyo in search of her father, where they are met by the ‘God...

"You're one pain-in-the-butt brat." Get ready for this one!

The 44th running of the Hawaii International Film Festival presented by Halekulani will open with “Tinā,” an uplifting drama film that marks the feature directorial debut of Miki Magasiva, and close with Sori Fumihiko’s “Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality.”

In between, the festival will pack in 92 features and 114 short films, major awards for guests including Jimmy O Yang, Hong Kong’s Sandra Ng and documentary filmmaking star Stanley Nelson.

“This year, we have the largest selection of Hawai`i films in competition in the festival’s history, are presenting multiple films that explore Indigenous perspectives, narrative sovereignty, and the nurturing of cultural identity, and additionally, we are launching a new spotlight showcasing the best in television,” said Beckie Stochetti, Hiff executive director.

Hailing from New Zealand, with dialog in English and Samoan, “Tinā” sees Anapela Polata’ivao (“Our Flag Means Death”) portray a well-respected and gifted vocal coach endure family tragedy...

With over 50+ films, Camera Japan Festival is proud to announce its full and diverse line-up, combining films ranging from de newest and best Japanese arthouse, animation, documentaries, short films and classic cinema.

The 19th edition of the festival will be officially opened at Rotterdam based LantarenVenster on September 26th with a festive screening of Yamashita Nobuhiro‘s Dutch premiere of One Second Ahead, One Second Behind. One day prior, the festival unofficially kicks off at Worm with a very special screening of Alien’s Daydream. From the 3 – 6 October, the festival moves to Amsterdam’s LAB111.

With five international and seven European premieres, the festival consists of a very special and exclusive film programme. Films such as Afterschool Anglers Club, Gifts from the Kitchen, Promised Land, Sin and Evil and Till the Day I Can Laugh About my Blues will have their first screenings outside of Japan, here, at Camera Japan Festival.

The anime film Ghost Cat Anzu ( Bakeneko Anzu-chan in Japan) won the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival Audience Awards' Gold prize in the Best Animated Feature category. The festival's official website announced the news on August 7. Mononoke the Movie: Karakasa (aka: Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in The Rain ) also won the Bronze prize in the category, in addition to the Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation for best animated feature film. The Fantasia International Film Festiva, which focuses on genre films such as action, fantasy, horror, science fiction, animation, has been held in Montreal, Canada since 1996. This year's festival was held from July 18 to August 4. The Audience Award was determined by popular vote of the audience attending the festival. The anime feature film adaptation of Takashi Imashiro's Ghost Cat Anzu manga opened in 71 theaters across Japan on July 19, 2024. The festival's official website describes the film: What is there to do in Iketeru?...

Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita (“Linda Linda Linda”) was represented by no less than three features at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest this year, including anime “Ghost Cat Anzu” and high school seriocomedy “Swimming in a Sand Pool.” The shortest, most outwardly simple yet also possibly best of the lot might well be “Confession,” a manga adaptation in which two mountaineering refugees from a blizzard spend a long, discomfiting night in a cabin. The fact that one of them has just admitted to murder means that that particular type of crime could well recur before dawn arrives.

More or less a single-setting two-hander, this thriller proves a small master class in eking maximum value from a premise one might assume too limited to sustain more than a short’s length. It’s a sharply honed, pleasurably nasty cat-and-mouse thriller that could attract remake interest overseas.

A brief prologue informs us that Sayuri...

Bookworm starring Elijah Wood as a hapless father who helps his daughter track down a mythical beast has won the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival’s audience award for best international feature.

Ant Timpson’s New Zealand family film took its place on the honours roll while Cannes premiere The Count Of Monte-Cristo, which earned the festival’s Cheval Noir juried award for best film just over a week ago, earned the silver award.

Jun’ichi Yasuda’s fish-out-of-water comedy A Samurai In Time was named Best Asian Feature, while Michael Pierro’s drama-thriller Self Driver was named Best Canadian Feature.

Voïvod: We Are Connected,...

In its second weekend of July 19-21, Kingdom: Daishougun no Kikan ( Return of The Great General ), the fourth installment in the live-action Kingdom film series based on Yasuhisa Hara's manga, earned 816 million yen (5.2 million Usd) on 529,000 admissions according to Kogyo Tsushinsha . The numbers were down 49 percent from its opening weekend ( 1.628 billion yen ) but it was enough to keep the film in the top spot for a second straight weekend. After 10 days on release, Daishougun no Kikan has made a cumulative 3.6 billion yen (22.93 million Usd) on 2.41 million admissions, which were about 158.5 percent of the first two-week revenue ( 2.271 billion yen ) of the previous third installment released in July 2023, Kingdom: The Flame of Destiny . Related: Japan Box Office: Fourth Live-Action Kingdom Film Makes Record-Breaking No.1 Debut Gekijou-ban SutoPuri Hajimari no Monogatari ~ Strawberry School Festival!!!~ ( Strawberry Prince The Movie: A Story of The Beginning ~Strawberry School Festival!!!!~ ), the anime feature film inspired by...

Japanese singer-songwriter Chiaki Sato has released a lyric video for her latest digital single song "Matatabi" on her official YouTube channel . The lyrical tune was newly written as the theme song for the anime film Ghost Cat Anzu ( Bakeneko Anzu-chan in Japan), and the clip features footage from the film. Matatabi (Silvervine) is a plant in the Kiwifruit family, which produces an oil that cats are naturally attracted to. And the word can also mean "a gambler's walking journey" in Japanese. Chiaki Sato "Matatabi" Lyric Video Sato formed the rock band Kinoko Teikoku with her college classmates in September 2007, and the band made its major label debut in April 2015. The band went on hiatus in 2019, but she has continued her activities as a solo singer. Her comments on "Matatabi" in the YouTube description reads: "I think everyone has memories of 'that summer.' The sounds of festivals, tepid ramune, and street rain.

We're just a couple days away from the premiere of the Ghost Cat Anzu anime film, a Japanese and French co-production that adapts Takashi Imashiro's manga of the same name. Following the July 19, 2024 opening in Japan, Gkids plans to distribute the film in North America sometime this year. Ahead of that, you can see how the film opens in a new video from the Toho animation channel on YouTube. Ghost Cat Anzu Opening Related: Ghost Cat Anzu Anime Film Reveals New Trailer, Cast and More The original  Ghost Cat Anzu  manga by Takashi Imashiro was serialized in Kodansha's children manga magazine Comic BomBom from August 2006 to November 2007, then compiled in one volume. Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita direct the film, which features rotoscoped animation produced by Shin-Ei Animation ( Doraemon ) and French studio Miyu Productions. Shinji Imaoka provides the script, Kuno provides the character designs, and Keiichi Suzuki provides the music.

Form and content align in the uniquely conceived and delightfully offbeat supernatural adventure “Ghost Cat Anzu.” For a movie about a reality where mortals and otherworldly spirits coexist on the same plane, the filmmakers decided to compound the flesh-and-bone realism of live action cinema and animation’s fantastical qualities. While the plot takes some jarring turns, its impish tone stays consistent throughout, making for a wildly enjoyable (if a bit perplexing) Japanese animated effort on its own wavelength.

Shot first with actors whose voices were also captured on location, this adaptation of Takashi Imashiro’s mid-2000s manga of the same name (written by screenwriter Shinji Imaoka) necessitated two directors. Nobuhiro Yamashita was in charge of staging the interactions between the cast to capture their subtle expressions. Then that footage served as the basis for the rotoscoped animation directed by Yôko Kuno with artists drawing over each frame to transform...

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window , an anime feature film based on an autobiographical novel by acclaimed Japanese actor and media personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, won the Paul Grimault Award in the feature category of the 48th Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 15. The Paul Grimault Award is the third award in the category, after the Crystal Award, the top prize, and the Jury's Award. The is the second consecutive year that a Japanese film has won the award, following last year's The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes directed by Tomohisa Taguchi. The festival's official website describes Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window : "At little Totto-Chan’s Tomoe School during the Second World War, she learns what racism and intolerance are, and discovers the grim reality of war." As reported , four Japanese films were included in this year's official selection of feature films...

Good afternoon Insiders. We’ve been all over Europe this week, so here’s Max Goldbart, back in the London-shaped saddle, to walk you through the major stories of the past seven days. Scroll on. And sign up here.

Animation Nation

Annecy proves its place: The weather may have been unseasonably chilly and drizzly at France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival this past week, but spirits weren’t dampened. With Despicable Me 4, which made its French premiere at the festival on Thursday night ahead of its July 3 launch in the U.S., predicted to hit a $100 million opening, animation is one of the bright spots at an ailing global box office right now. Annecy’s 16,000 attendees were treated to sneak peaks of some of the most anticipated animated studio movies and series of the year including Transformers One, The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim and Moana 2,...

Crunchyroll Senior Vice President of Global Commerce Mitchel Berger was in ebullient mood as he gave a talk on the growing global reach of anime at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this week.

The Sony-owned platform is in attendance this year with soccer-themed Blue Lock the Movie – Episode Nagi, which made its international premiere here, and comedy series Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead in the TV Films competition.

Beyond Crunchyroll’s presence, anime productions are out in force at Annecy, with four titles playing in the main competition: Ghost Cat Anzu, The Colors Within, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl At The Window and The Imaginary.

Outside the festival, Crunchyroll has just begun rolling out Japanese hit Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle in key European territories following its release in the U.S., Asia and Latin America in May.

It is also gearing up for the international theatrical release of Blue Lock The Movie,...

After closing out last month’s Cannes competition, Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Precious of Cargoes” opened this year’s Annecy Animation Festival on an auspicious note. With French productions accounting for one half of Annecy’s 12 competition slots, the Alpine showcase doubles a show of force for Gallic filmmakers writ large – a fact made all the more impressive given their sector’s relative youth.

“20 years ago, French animation barely existed,” says “The Most Precious of Cargoes” executive producer Valerie Schermann, who credits “Kirikou and the Sorceress” director Michel Ocelot with forging a new path that many have since followed. “Michel showed that it was possible to produce animated features in France; without him I would never have been able to make my own films.”

But if Schermann built a sterling filmography in those ensuing decades – with credits such as “Zarafa,” “Wolfy, the Incredible Secret” and “The Red Turtle” – the stalwart...

Ghost Cat Anzu is an intriguing conceptualization for an animated film, existing in a realm similar to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away yet also standing as its antithesis.

This French-Japanese co-production from Miyu Productions and Shin-Ei Animation based on the manga by Takashi Imashiro is one of the most eccentric pieces of animation I’ve encountered in a long time — in both good and bad ways. It’s good because of the innovative techniques and methods employed by directors Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, who take bold experimental leaps. However, it’s also bad because Shinji Imaoka’s script meanders for nearly an hour before reaching the film’s true core, demanding a lot of patience from the viewer without providing much substance in return.

The story begins with Karin (voiced by Noa Goto) and her father Tetsuya (Munetaka Aoki) arriving at the Sousei-Ji temple, where her widowed grandfather resides.

When Hayao Miyazaki’s long-awaited and supposed swansong The Boy and the Heron opened at No. 1 at the North American box office last December with a record-breaking $12.8 million tally, it was not only the first original anime title to achieve such a feat, but it was the biggest ever opening for U.S. distributor Gkids. It kickstarted what would be a whirlwind few months for the now 16-year-old company as it took the Studio Ghibli film, (which had opened the Toronto Film Festival in September) to an enormous $46.7 million box office gross (more than double their initial projections) in North America and, later a Best Animation win at the Oscars.

“It was the right film for the right time,” says Gkids president Dave Jesteadt. “The Boy and the Heron was Miyazaki’s first film in 10 years, and I think that a normal concern would have been if audiences had forgotten him,...

Unlike Cannes’ industry-catered competition section, the festival’s independent sidebar Directors’ Fortnight defines itself around audience outreach.

Headquartered halfway down the Croisette, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals, where the official selection screens for an industry-only crowd, Fortnight embraces the sprawl. The 56th edition programs 21 features and another eight shorts from May 15-25 (starting with Sophie Fillières’ posthumous “This Life of Mine”) while bringing select titles to many theaters far from the main drag.

That same selection will also offer the easiest point of access for so many locals, for whom Fortnight is often synonymous with Cannes, and who can always count on a 30-minute Q&a after each screening. Further afield, however, that clarity of identity begins to fade.

For one thing, the showcase doesn’t have a recognizable pitchman. In the time since Thierry Frémaux took over the official selection in 2004, Directors’ Fortnight has seen four artistic directors come and go,...