Jan 19, 2023

Competition Films for the 1st Niigata International Animation Festival Announced!

With only two months to go until the inaugural Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF), the organizers have announced the films to be screened in the competition section of the festival, which will be held for the first time in Japan.

The Niigata International Animation Film Festival was established as an annual event to promote feature-length animation from around the world. The lineup for this inaugural competition fits that mold nicely and includes films from a diverse range of countries:

Ten films were selected from a pool of 21 submissions from 15 countries. Including minority producers, the competition lineup includes 12 countries.

Mamoru Oshii, director of "Ghost in the Shell," will serve as president of the jury for the first Niigata Film Festival. The festival director is former Newtype editor-in-chief Shinichiro Inoue, the artistic director is animation journalist Tadashi Sudo, and the secretary general is Taro Maki, producer of "In a Corner of the World" and "Mobile Police Patlabor."

The 1st Niigata International Animation Film Festival will be held from March 17-22 in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture. Along with the lineup, a new poster for the festival was also unveiled.