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The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, the U.K.’s largest festival of Japanese cinema, will take to the road in February and March. Its 2024 selection is the event’s largest ever with much of it attuned to the theme of memories, times and reflections.

“The JFTFP24 delves into Japanese cinema to explore how memories are employed in the cinematic voices of Japanese filmmakers, from films where memories are a focal point to works where they play a subliminal role in driving or affecting people’s minds and behavior,” said organizers.

The festival will run Feb. 2 – Mar. 31 and take in 30 U.K. cities including Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Orkney, Exeter and York.

Program highlights include: the U.K. premiere of “Shadow of Fire,” directed by festival favorite Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man); a new entry in Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno genre, “Hand”; visually stunning anime “Lonely Castle in the Mirror,...

In recent times, films from Okinawa have been put in the spotlight. In their search for new aspects of Japanese cinema, Western scholars and festival programmers discover the works of Yuji Nakae and other local directors to display a culture, which is in tune with nature and in strict contrast to the concrete jungle of the metropolis. Tsukasa Kishimoto is part of this new Okinawa cinema. Although, he is no rookie anymore. “Happy Sandwich” is his 10th movie and carries on the tradition of a local-based storyline.

Happy Sandwich is screening at Kimolos International Film Festival

Set in the northern part of Okinawa, known as Yanbaru, Manna, the chef of a BBQ restaurant is given the task of creating a special sandwich as an offering to the gods. To fulfill the request of the priest, he travels around the island and meets with several people involved in the food sector,...

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Aca) announces the sixth Aca Cinema Project series – New Films from Japan – organized as part of its Japan Film Overseas Expansion Enhancement Project in collaboration with the IFC Center and with Visual Industry Promotion Organization (Vipo) entrusted with the operation of the project. This edition of the program will present four films that have made an impact, received critical acclaim, and won awards at film festivals around the world over the course of the past year.

Screening at the IFC Center on February 10-16, the lineup will include Kei Ishikawa’s A Man, Shô Miyake’s Small, Slow but Steady, Nao Kubota’s Thousand and One Nights, Yuji Nakae’s The Zen Diary, and Juichiro Yamasaki’s Yamabuki.

New Films from Japan series is the latest presentation of the Aca Cinema Project, representing the buzzworthy films of contemporary Japanese screen entertainment and highlighting...

Miyake Sho’s female-led boxing drama “Small, Slow, But Steady” has been named the best Japanese film of 2022 by Kinema Junpo magazine. This honor has been awarded annually since 1924 and is considered the Japanese industry’s most prestigious.

Kishii Yukino, who starred as a struggling deaf boxer, claimed the best actress award, while Miura Tomokazu, who played her supportive, but unsparingly, honest gym manager, was named best supporting actor. Finally, Miyake was voted the year’s best Japanese director in a readers’ poll.

The film premiered in the Berlin festival’s Encounters section last year. It later played widely on the festival circuit, including at China’s Pingyao festival where it won the gala-audience prize.

Among other awards, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” was named best foreign film, while veteran Takahashi Banmei won the best director prize and Kajiwara Aki the best screenplay award for the drama “No Place to Go” about a middle-aged woman driven to homelessness during the pandemic.