11th annual Nippon Connection Festival announces first films in its amazing line-up

by Chris MaGee

A highlight of the J-Film Pow-Wow's year is fast approaching - the annual Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. I've had my ticket booked for about a month now, but have been eagerly awaiting word on what visitors to the fest will be able to see this year. This week that word came via a press release from Nippon Connection central.

Once again the 5-day festival will be bringing the best in Japanese film to Europe. Check out just some of the line-up that was announced: Hiromasa Yonebayashi's "The Borrower Arriety", Takahisa Zeze's "Heaven's Story", Yoshihiro Nishimura's "Hell Driver", Hideaki Hosono's "Dum Beast", Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's "Sketches of Kaitan City", Keita Kurosaka's "Midori-ko" and Keichi Hara's "Colourful" will all be on the big screen in Frankfurt.

Added to these will be a special retrospective of the work of Sion Sono in the Nippon Retro programme, a selection of this year's graduating class of the Tokyo University of the Arts Film Program and a special animation programme featuring the work of DVD collective CALF.

A great time will indeed be had at the 11th annual Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival which runs from April 27th to May 1st. Check out there official website here. I'll have a big bowl of ramen there for all of you!