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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the list of feature films eligible for consideration in the Best Animated Feature Film category for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.

Among the 31 titles vying for a nomination, five anime films have secured their place.

The eligible anime films are:

The Colors Within – Directed by Naoko Yamada and produced by Science Saru Ghost Cat Anzu – A collaboration between Yōko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita, Shinei Animation, and France’s Miyu Productions. The Imaginary – An adaptation of A.F. Harrold and Emily Gravett’s novel, this film is directed by Yoshiyuki Momose and produced by Studio Ponoc. Look Back – based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed one-shot manga, directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama and produced by Studio Durian. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – Directed by Kenji Kamiyama and produced by Sola Entertainment.

While these films are among the 31 contenders, some have...

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...

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."...

World premieres of US filmmaker Chris Gude’s Morichales, about gold mining in Venezuela, Italian director Maria Mauti’s Miralles dedicated to the legacy of a Catalan architect, and La Jetée, The Fifth Shot by renowned French director Dominique Cabrera, are among the films selected for the international competition at this year’s Dok Leipzig festival.

It is taking place from October 28 to November 3 in Germany.

The international competition titles also include Ukrainian director Adelina Borets’s Flowers Of Ukraine, about a woman cultivating a small plot of land in Kyiv amid war. The project was presented at last year...

Hidden within the towering peaks, deep in the whiteout of a raging blizzard, lies a traumatic secret that will be impossible to outrun. As the angry storm batters the isolated wilderness, it also stirs memories long buried and awakens a face from the past better left forgotten. Two veteran climbers find themselves trapped together in a remote refuge, their annual pilgrimage up the unforgiving slopes transformed into a desperate struggle to not only survive the elements but each other.

For over a decade, Asai and Jiyong have made the difficult ascent to honor their dearest friend Sayuri, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances on their final expedition as students. But this time the storm threatens to claim another life as Jiyong’s leg is badly injured, and in a moment of fearing his demise, he confesses to Asai a truth that forever alters the nature of their refuge.

With rescue now...

The Animation Is Film Festival returns to Los Angeles for its 7th edition of theatrical presentations, special events and shorts showcases, taking place Oct. 18-20 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The festival’s opening night begins Friday, Oct. 18, with the North American premiere of the vibrant and musically driven feature film by critically acclaimed Japanese director Naoko Yamada (“A Silent Voice”), “The Colors Within,” from groundbreaking Japanese animation studio Science Saru and distributed in the U.S. by Gkids. The Centerpiece on Saturday, Oct. 19, features the North American premiere of Warner Bros. Animation’s “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” which TheWrap saw earlier this year at Annecy and loved. Aif closes its annual event with the Los Angeles premiere of IFC Films’ “Memoir of a Snail” from acclaimed director Adam Elliot, who won this year’s Cristal Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

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...

“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!

Bookworm

This year's Fantasia international Film Festival came to a close on Sunday night after a bumper year, with record attendance and more sold out screenings than at any time since before the Covid pandemic began. Full details of its Audience Awards have now been released, with Ant Timpson's Bookworm, starring Nell Fisher and Elijah Wood, named Best international Feature.

Next year's festival will be held between 17 July and 3 August.

Those awards in full:

Best International Feature Gold: Bookworm Silver: The Count Of Monte Cristo Bronze: Rats!

Best Asian Feature Gold: A Samurai In Time Silver: Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In Bronze: Penalty Loop

Best Animated Feature Gold: Ghost Cat Anzu Silver: [film id=44072]The...

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,...

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...

The annual New York Asian Film Festival is about to kick off this summer.

Presented by the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center, the 23rd edition of the festival will take place from July 12 through 22 at Film at Lincoln Center, with additional screenings from July 22 through 28 at the Sva Theatre and July 13–15, 18–21, and 23–25 at Look Cinemas W57, plus a special collaborative presentation of films at the Korean Cultural Center New York.

This year’s lineup marks the largest list of premieres, with 20 films debuting including the North American premiere of “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” which debuted at Cannes.

The opening night selection is the world premiere of Park Beom-su’s “Victory,” a cheerleading epic that’s billed as “Bring It On” meets “Parasite.” Lee Hye-ri (of 3rd-gen K-pop band Girl’s Day) will be in attendance with co-star Park Se-wan and director Park.

For all the live-action manga/anime adaptations of popular properties, it is nice to see filmmakers give lesser-known works the cinematic treatment. Yama Wayama's manga series “Let's Go Karaoke!” while not on the same level of popularity as other comedic illustrated works, has garnered a positive reception in Japan and internationally. Surely, the strange yet humorous concept of the head of a high school choir giving singing lessons to a pitiful yakuza lieutenant could be solidly translated to film, especially in the hands of a talented filmmaker like Nobuhiro Yamashita, best known for his critically acclaimed feature “Linda Linda Linda.” Sadly, “Let's Go Karaoke!” is a movie that accomplishes the unfortunate feat of being both a lackluster comedy and a poorly conceived drama.

Let's Go Karaoke! is screening at Nippon Connection

One day, yakuza member Kyoji Narita is strolling through the rainy streets when he is drawn to the...

Mit 19.000 Besucherinnen und Besuchern meldet das Nippon Connection Filmfestival für seine 24. Ausgabe einen neuen Rekord. Der Nippon Cinema Award, über den das Publikum abstimmt, ging an die Musikkomödie „Let’s Go Karaoke!“ von Nobuhiro Yamashita.

Publikumsliebling beim 24. Nippon Connection Filmfestival: „Let’s Go Karaoke“ (Credit: Nippon Connection)

Die 24. Ausgabe des auf japanische Filme spezialisierten Nippon Connection Filmfestivals ging mit einem Publikumsrekord zu Ende. Gesamt strömten laut Festival 19.000 Besucherinnen und Besucher zu den Screenings – so viele wie nie zuvor. Die meisten Film- und Kulturveranstaltungen an den acht Locations in Frankfurt am Main waren laut Veranstalter ausverkauft. Über 150 japanische und internationale Filmschaffende waren vor Ort und tauschten sich mit dem Publikum aus. Der älteste Preis des Festivals, der Nippon Cinema Award, über den das Publikum abstimmt, ging an die Musikkomödie „Let’s Go Karaoke!“ von Nobuhiro Yamashita. Auch bei zwei weiteren Preisen war die Meinung des Publikums gefragt: Gewinner des Nippon Docs Award...

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,...

Montreal, Quebec | July 18 – August 4, 2024

The Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 28th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning yet again at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal's Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée.

The festival's full lineup will be announced on July 3, but in the meantime, Fantasia has unveiled a select first wave of premiere titles, along with a first look at its 2024 poster art created by Montreal visual artist Donald Caron.

The highly anticipated Asian films in the line-up include the following:

Confession | Japan | Dir: Nobuhiro Yamashita

North American Premiere

Every winter since Sayuri's tragic disappearance sixteen years ago, Asai and Jiyong climb the mountain where it happened to honor her memory. However, an intense blizzard and a catastrophic injury convince Jiyong he's done for and,...

Here. We. Go! Fantasia has announed the first wave of titles for this year's annual gathering of cinema genre nerds in and around Montreal. New films from all over the globe are coming to delight fans and evoke the expected chorus of meows all day and night. New films from Lowell Dean, the Adams family, Chuck Russell, Miguel Llansó, and Jayro Bustamante will be joined by debuts from Chris Stuckmann, Pratul Gaikwad and Annick Blanc. All in all there are already ten world premieres in this first wave alone. Everything you need to know about the first wave follows below. Fantasia Announces A Stunning First Wave Of Titles For Its 28th Edition Chuck Russell's Witchboard, Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks, Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Confession,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Jayro Bustamente's Rita Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival

The Fantasia International Film Festival likes to tease, and as usual, it's revealing its line-up slowly this year, with the first tranche of titles going public today. New works by Nobuhiro Yamashita (Confession), Shinji Araki (Penalty Loop) and the Adams Family (Hell Hole), it's promising to be a thrilling event.

Back at the the Concordia Hall and Ja de Sève cinemas in Montreal for its 28th edition, the festival has attracted some highly anticipated films. Jayro Bustamente's Rita draws on Guatemalan myth and the tragic events at the Virgen de La Asunción children's home in 2017 (previously addressed in Oscar-nominated short Saria) to explore the wider social and existential import of the mistreatment of children. Chris Stuckmann's Shelby Oaks tells the haunting story of one woman's search for her missing sister and her gradual realisation that their childhood invisible friend might have been something real and dangerous.

The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 28th edition with another densely packed slate of events and programming running from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning yet again at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée.

The festival’s full lineup will be announced on July 3, but in the meantime, Fantasia 2024 has revealed a select first wave of premiere titles. With premieres for Chuck Russell’s Witchboard remake, the Mike Flanagan-presented found footage Shelby Oaks, the latest from La Llorona filmmaker Jayro Bustamante and more, Fantasia’s shaping up to have another can’t miss slate of films.

The first wave of select titles, from the press release:

Witchboard

From A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the beloved1988 remake of The Blob to The Mask, Eraser, and The Scorpion King,...

Exclusive: Quebec’s Fantasia International Film Festival has set the first round of titles set for its 2024 edition, running July 18 – Aug 4.

Films set to debut at the festival include Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks, which will world premiere at the festival with a screening presented by Mike Flanagan.

Produced by Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, and Ashleigh Snead with exec producers including Flanagan and Trevor Macy, the film follows a woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister, a famous YouTuber who investigated paranormal happenings, who falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that broke records across the platform, the highly anticipated feature debut feature from YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann is finally here and ready to scare the pants off the world.

Other premieres set for the fest include Witchboard, the latest film from Chuck Russell.

Ghost Cat Anzu (known in Japan as Bakeneko Anzu-chan ), an upcoming Japanese and French theatrical anime film co-production, released a new trailer today alongside information on new cast, the official movie poster, and the official theme song performer. The film releases in Japanese theaters on July 19, 2024. Gkids, who executive produced the film, will also distribute the film in North America this year. The film will also host its world premiere at the 77th Cannes International Film Festival this month. The new cast members for Ghost Cat Anzu include: Tetsuya, Karin's Father voiced / motion-captured by Munetaka Aoki Yuzuki, Karin's Mother voiced / motion-captured by Miwako Ichikawa Osho-san, Anzu's Foster Parent voiced / motion-captured by Keiichi Suzuki (of Moonriders) The God of Poverty voiced / motion-captured by Shingo Mizusawa Tanuki voiced / motion-captured by Wataru Sawabe (of Skirt) Actors Mutsuo Yoshioka and Shohei Uno also appear in the film. Actor and musician Chiaki Sato...

The official website for the upcoming 48th Annecy International Animation Film Festival has revealed 12 films to compete in this year's official selection of feature films. The lineup includes four Japanese film — Ghost Cat Anzu (French-Japanese co-production) directed by Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita, The Colors Within directed by Naoko Yamada, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window directed by Shinnosuke Yakuwa, and The Imaginary by Yoshiyuki Momose. The 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival Official Selection - Feature films Into the Wonderwoods by Vincent Paronnaud, Alexis Ducard / France, Luxembourg Flow by Gints Zilbalodis / Latvia, Belgium, France Ghost Cat Anzu by Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita / Japan, France The Colors Within by Naoko Yamada / Japan The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius / Belgium, France Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Shinnosuke Yakuwa / Japan Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot / Australia Rock Bottom by María Trénor / Spain, Poland Sauvages by Claude Barras / Switzerland,...

Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 2024 edition, including the Competition line-up and a programme of previews from the major studios.

The 12-strong Official Competition includes Adam Elliot’s Australian feature Memoir Of A Snail, in which Succession star Sarah Snook voices a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails; and stop-motion Savages!, director Claude Barras’ first feature since his Bafta- and Oscar-nominated My Life As A Courgette.

Scroll down for the full Competition line-up

The festival will open with Michel Hazanavicius’ Competition title The Most Precious Of Cargoes, heading to Annecy from its debut in Cannes Competition.

The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre's 13th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be held from June 6th to 20th at the Jccc's Kobayashi Hall. The festival has now grown into one of the largest film events of its kind in the world and is recognized by the Japanese film industry as a vital conduit for bringing Japanese film to the world.

TorontoJFF is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premieres of Kosai Sekine's mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda and Toshiyuki Teruya's heartwarming Okinawa-based comedy Kanasando「かなさんどー 」. The festival is also very proud to present the World Premiere of Alice Il Shin's Landscapes Of Home 「故郷の風景」 from producer Eiko Kawabe Brown. The film is an investigation of Japanese Canadian struggle from a new perspective redefining...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, running from June 9 to 15. (scroll down for full list of titles and events)

Highlights announced on Thursday include Terry Gilliam as guest of honor to receive an Honorary Cristal and give a masterclass. He joins previously announced honorary guest Wes Anderson.

The main Competition and the Contrechamps sections will showcase 23 new animated features.

Features in the main competition include Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius’ first ever animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, which will also open the festival.

The drama follows the fate of baby boy who is thrown from an Auschwitz-bound train by his French-Jewish father. The picture will world premiere first in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Other Cannes films in Annecy’s main competition include Un Certain Regard selection Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis and Ghost Cat Anzu by Japan’s Yoko Kuno,...

The Most Precious of Cargoes, the first animated feature from Oscar-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), will open this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The feature is a 2D animated adaptation of the best-selling book by French author Jean-Claude Grumberg. Set during World War II, it tells the story of a French Jewish family deported to Auschwitz. On the train to the death camp, in a desperate gesture, the father throws one of his baby twins out into the snow, where he’s discovered by a childless Polish couple living deep in the forest.

Hazanavicius presented the film as a work-in-progress at Annecy two years ago. French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant narrates the film with voice acting from Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, and Grégory Gadebois. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) composed the score. Animation is from 3.0 Studio – formerly Prima Linea — the group behind the...

The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre’s 13th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be held from June 6th to 20th at the Jccc’s Kobayashi Hall. The festival has now grown into one of the largest film events of its kind in the world and is recognized by the Japanese film industry as a vital conduit for bringing Japanese film to the world.

Tjff is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premiere of Kosai Sekine’s mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda.

North American Premieres include Hayato Kawai’s comic retelling of the 47 Ronin story Don’T Lose Your Head!「身代わり忠臣蔵 」, Sho Miyake’s gentle tale of friendship amid mental-health struggles, All The Long Nights「夜明けのすべて 」, Yoshiyuki Kishi’s winner of the Audience Award and Best Director at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival,...

Following the main lineups for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, a handful of sidebar slates have been unveiled, featuring Directors Fortnight, Critics Week, and Acid. Notable highlights include the Sundance favorite Good One (read our review here), Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point starring Michael Cera, the first film in over a decade from James White director Josh Mond, the Christopher Abbott-led It Doesn’t Matter, Eat the Night from Jessica Forever duo Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, Carson Lund’s Eephus, Patricia Mazuy’s Visting Hours, The Hyperboreans, a new film from The Wolf House directors Cristobal Leo & Joaquin Cocina, Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century follow-up Universal Language, and more.

Check out the lineups below.

Cannes Directors Fortnight

Feature films:

“Ma Vie Ma Gueule,” Sophie Fillieres (France) – opening film

“A Son Image,” Thierry de Peretti (France)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Tyler Taormina (USA)

“Desert of Namibia,...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section has unveiled its lineup for the 2024 festival, which will open with This Life of Mine, the final feature from the late French director Sophie Fillières. The drama features Agnès Jaoui as a woman whose identity starts to unravel when she turns 55. Fillières died shortly after wrapping principal photography on the film and her children finished post-production.

There are four U.S. titles in the feature section of the non-competitive sidebar: Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, Carson Lund’s Eephus, India Donaldson’s Good One and Gazer from Ryan J. Sloan.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, starring Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Francesca Scorsese. Ben Shenkman, Gregg Turkington, Sawyer Spielberg, Maria Dizzia and newcomer Matilda Fleming, follows four generations as they gather for what might be their last Christmas in the family home. Lund, who lensed Christmas Eve, makes his feature debut with Eephus,...

The 77th edition of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight will kick off with “This Life of Mine,” a dramedy directed by Sophie Fillières, a renowned French filmmaker who died last year. Presented posthumously, the film is headlined by French stars including Agnès Jaoui, Philippe Katerine and Valérie Donzelli. The independent selection, which has recently gone through a rebranding and is now spearheaded by artistic director Julien Rejl, will close with another French film, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s “Plastic Guns,” an offbeat crime comedy headlined by popular actor Jonathan Cohen.

The lineup includes as many as four U.S. features, three of which are feature debuts, including India Donaldson’s coming-of-age film”Good One” which premiered at Sundance and garnered solid reviews. Set in upstate New York, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam as she joins her father and his oldest friend, Matt, on their annual backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains. “Good One” has...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 56th edition heavy on films from first-time US filmmakers, South American titles, and talent including Isabelle Huppert, Michael Cera and Agnès Jaoui.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 16) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

After undergoing a complete rebranding for last year’s edition complete with new artistic director Rejl and a new more inclusive female-forward name in French to La Quinzaine des Cinéastes, this year’s selection includes eight...

Soon it's that time of year again! Just a few weeks left until the 24th Nippon Connection Film Festival once again envelops Frankfurt am Main (Germany) in bright pink. From May 28 to June 2, 2024, the world's largest festival of Japanese cinema will showcase around 100 short and feature films at eight venues. The country's culture will also be explored through the extensive culture program, reflecting Japan's musical, culinary, and artistic diversity.

The Nippon Connection Film Festival presents works by both established filmmakers and emerging directors. From Takeshi Kitano's action-packed samurai film Kubi to the captivating comedy Fly Me To The Saitama -From Biwa Lake With Love- by Hideki Takeuchi, and Yoshimi Itazu's imaginative animation The Concierge, the film program offers highlights of various genres. Most films will celebrate their German, European, or international premieres at the festival. The festival's focus on Crossing Borders, supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, explores...

Based on a high school play by the Tokushima City High School Drama Club, “Swimming in a Sand Pool” does function intently like a stage play, but the fact that the majority of the story takes place inside a swimming pool makes it stand out from other similar productions.

Swimming in a Sand Pool is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

It is summer vacation, but high schoolers Kokoro and ‘pretty girl' Miku have been instructed by their Pe teacher, Yamamoto, to clean the swimming pool. The pool has been drained of water and is covered with sand from the baseball team's field, which lies just next to it. The girls are not exactly eager to do so under the blazing sun, while Miku soon has an argument with the teacher, since she is wearing make-up against the school rules. Furthermore, Chizuru, a rather quirky girl who is practicing her...

Nippon powerhouse Toho has thrown its weight behind directors Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s “Ghost Cat Anzu,” overseeing the Japanese release and marking the occasion with a brand-new teaser.

As previously announced, specialty distributor Gkids has already picked up the film for North America, while Charades continues to roll out international sales.

Bringing together Japan’s Shin-Ei Animation and France’s Miyu Productions, the family title tracks the tempestuous friendship shared between 11-year Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian.

‘Ghost Cat Anzu’

Adapted from Takashi Imashiro’s manga, the animated title will feature the voice talents of Mirai Moriyama as the phantom feline, and Noa Goto as his young charge. The project will hit Japanese screens in July with a North American opening to follow.

Best known his critically acclaimed features,...

"A once-in-a-lifetime summer." GKids has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a Japanese animated film titled Ghost Cat Anzu, arriving to watch later in 2024. This originally premiered at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival last year as a work-in-progress project. It's now finished and ready to debut in Japan this summer. It's a rotoscoped 2D animation film that's co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, who often makes live-action films. The Japanese cinema master Nobuhiro Yamashita x rising star of anime world Yôko Kuno x world-renowned artist Mirai Moriyama create a "monster cat"! The anime is about an amusing friendship shared between Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian. Mirai Moriyama voices the titular Anzu, and Noa Gotō voices Karin. Both played their characters live-action that became the reference for the animators, with both...

A remake of the Taiwanese hit “My Missing Valentine”, “One Second Ahead, One Second Behind” remains faithful to the original script, with one crucial difference, of flipping the genders of the protagonists.

One Second Ahead, One Second Behind is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

Hajime has always been one second faster than everyone else. His eyes are never open in any of his school portraits, and he wakes up before his alarm goes off. Driving is also an issue, which is what has made him change his job in the post office, from delivering mail to manning the counter. He lives with his sister, a ganguro indulger, and frequently calls the radio station to talk about his personal life, in instances his mother and sister also listen and put in their own opinion about his self-loathing, particularly having to do with his inability to keep a girlfriend. Things,...

Specialty distributor Gkids has picked up North American rights to directors Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s upcoming animated feature “Ghost Cat Anzu,” while Paris-based Charades has boarded the project for international sales.

Spearheaded by Miyu Productions and Shin-Ei Animation, and adapted from a manga by Takashi Imashiro, the family title tracks the tempestuous friendship shared between 11-year Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian.

The project will screen as a work-in-progress presentation at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, and is slated for release in 2024.

“From the moment we saw the first drawings and read the script, we knew we needed to be attached and help get this film into the world,” says Gkids director Eric Beckman. “We are huge fans of Yoku Kuno’s animation, of Shin-Ei, and...

From the late ’50s and into the 1970s the Japanese New Wave exhibited an incredible creative outburst that defined and shaped what we consider contemporary Japanese cinema. But most studious critics have labeled what came after, the 1980s, as the “lost decade” of Japanese filmmaking, where no major directors or movements came to the forefront in either the home country or worldwide. Nevertheless, there’s been a recent surge of reconsideration of that period, mainly through retrospectives and restorations, like the one put together by Japan Society on Shinji Somai, one of the most important, eclectic directors who got his start in that epoch.

“Rites of Passage: The Films of Shinji Somai” features seven of the director’s early features, made between 1981 and 1990, which cemented his style. As the name of the retrospective and its accompanying description by its programmers hint, Somai cut his teeth into the seishun eiga (youth film) genre,...

Official Selection: Busan International Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and many more.

Synopsis: Depressed and in debt following the death of his wife, Santoshi (Jiro Sato) tells his young daughter he has found a way out. Pointing to a reward note, he vows to find the infamous serial killer “No Name” (Hiroya Shimizu) and cash in, claiming to have seen the man in the flesh a few days earlier. Kaeda (Aoi Ito) cannot take her aloof father serious. But when he goes missing without a trace, she starts to fear the worst—and must begin looking for him.

After working as an assistant director for Japanese films, including Nobuhiro Yamashita’s works, filmmaker Shinzô Katayama crossed paths with Bong Joon-Ho while shooting “Tokyo!” (2008) and served as his assistant director on “Mother” (2009). In 2019, his debut feature, “Siblings of the Cape ” was selected by numerous domestic and international film festivals.

I do not think there is any other movie industry in the world that produces so many movies about toxic individuals as the Japanese one, with the independent sector in particular dealing with this type of personas quite frequently, as filmmakers like Shinya Tsukamoro. Tetsuya Mariko and Toshiaki Toyoda extensively focus on this type of loser. Nobuhiro Yamashita attempts to do the same, adapting the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel “Kueki Ressha” by Kenta Nishimura, adding though, a very significant element, the presence of female character Yasuko, who did not exist in the original.

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The character in focus is named Kanta Kitamachi, and he is the epitome of the term ‘loser’. Coming from a family that fell apart when his father was convicted as a sex offender, the 19-year-old has been living alone in a tiny apartment, spending all the money...

Amazon Prime Video has doubled down on its investment in Japan with six local originals greenlit and an additional foray into live boxing.

At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle ProjectModern Love Tokyo," the Japanese adaptation of Prime Video’s original romantic anthology series "Modern Love." The series stars Asami Mizukawa, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yûsuke Santamaria, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Naomi Scott, with episodes directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Wife of a Spy"), Naoko Ogigami ("Close-Knit"), Ryuichi Hiroki ("Ride or Die"), Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Matsugane ransha jiken"), and Atsuko Hirayanagi ("Oh Lucy!"), who also serves as showrunner. Set for 2023 is "My Lovely Yokai Girlfriend" a half-hour, young adult romantic horror adventure-comedy series about two outcasts directed by Takahiro Miki and created by Yalun Tu...