Editor

Very soon we'll leave behind those grey and cold German winter days and lovely cherry blossoms will start to flourish. And every year, along with the cherry blossoms comes: Nippon Connection!

For the seventh time, Frankfurt am Main will host the world's largest showcase for film from Japan, Nippon Connection. Once again, we will put the spotlight on the most exciting movies from the land of the rising sun for a full five days.
From April 18th to 22nd the line-up boasts more than 170 films, ranging from inventive short films to high-profile blockbuster productions. Well over 30 filmmakers will be present at Nippon Connection to introduce their films, including director Shinya Tsukamoto („Tetsuo") with his new masterpiece Nightmare Detective, famous Japanese actress Kaori Momoi and her debut film Faces of a Fig Tree, „Boys Choir"-director Akira Ogata with The Milkwoman, Ryuichi Hiroki with Love on Sunday, Japan's king of trash treasures Minoru Kawasaki with The World Sinks Except Japan and Rug Cop, one of the „seven lucky gods of Pink Film" Shinji Imaoka with Uncle's Paradise and many more

Other films in the programme are the fantasy tale Mushishi by Katsuhiro Otomo („Akira", „Steamboys"), animated features Paprika by Satoshi Kon and Tekkon Kinkreet by Michael Arias, the anime series Kemonozume by „Mindgame"-director Masaaki Yuasa, Noriko's Dinner Table and Into a Dream by enfant terrible Sion Sono („Suicide Circle"), the first film in 36 years by the infamous Masao Adachi The Prisoner, the laconic comedy The Matsugane Potshot Affair by Nobuhiro Yamashita, the masterful and delirious Ten Nights of Dreams and many more.

The film program is divided into the sections Nippon Cinema, Nippon Digital, and the retrospective Nippon Retro. This year's retrospective „Shooting the Sun" covers Japanese experimental film from 1960 to today and is shown in cooperation with the German Filmmuseum Frankfurt. Nippon Connection presents the most explosive, influential, and extremely rare works from almost fifty fascinating years of Japanese experimental film.
For the third time, the best Japanese movie will receive the Nippon Cinema Award, courtesy of Bankhaus Metzler. After the event in Franfurt, part of the festivals program will go on a world tour, showing in Leipzig, Berlin, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Toronto.

Accompanying the film program there are a wide range of cultural events, which take you from the traditional Japan, with tea ceremony and cooking classes, to contemporary culture, with karaoke bars, video games, concerts and parties. Among this years highlights is renowned puppet master Joe Taira (http://page.freett.com/joesgroup), the Japanese breakdance legend Mori-156 in dance contest with a robot, and in cooperation with Landungsbruecken Frankfurt the stage performance „Das Wind im Ei" after a novel by award-winning writer Yoko Tawada. Stage interviews with film makers, lectures and podium discussions with experts on Japanese films round off the programme.

During the festival, one of the most imortant academic events for film from Japan in the world, the Kinema Club Conference for the Study of Film and Moving Images from Japan, will bring experts of Japanese cinema from all around the globe to Frankfurt. The eighth installment of the conference will be the first one in Europe, and is organized by Nippon Connection and Prof. Mark Nornes of the University of Michigan in cooperation with the University of Frankfurt's Instiute for Theatre-, Film- and Media studies. 33 Researchers from academic institutions in 9 countries will hold a wealth of lectures to reflect on the history and present of film from Japan. The complete program of the conference can be looked into at: http://pears2.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html


Providing a great overview of recent Japanese film making, the Nippon Connection Film Festival is cherished by film fans and professionals alike, attracting 16.000 people last year.
As in previous years, the Nippon Connection Film Festival is organised on a voluntary basis by Nippon Connection e.V.

Event locations: Studierendenhaus on the Campus Bockenheim, Filmtheater Valentin and the Cinema at Deutsches Filmmuseum.