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The very first Anime Film Festival will show a selection of anime classics in London on September 7th

The brand new Anime Film Festival is taking place on Saturday 7th September in London’s West End, with a programme of visually stunning and captivating films from Japan which will keep keen anime fans, as well as families and younger audiences, spellbound.​

was created by Reuben Ramanah, an avid anime fan who has long felt that, despite its strong following in the UK, anime is rarely given the spotlight it deserves in cinemas here. Working with a team of close friends adept in digital marketing and partnering with Picturehouse cinemas, an exciting festival has been created that has already received the backing of Manga UK and Anime Limited as well as creative support from YouTuber Beyond Ghibli and Picnic Animation Studio.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

(2018) by Mamoru Hosoda
From acclaimed director Mamoru Hosoda (“Wolf Children”,
“Summer Wars “) comes “Mirai”, a daringly original story of the importance of family across generations, and the first non-Studio Ghibli anime film to be nominated for an Academy Award.

(2018) by Hiroyasu Ishida
A recently-made hidden gem, this off-kilter coming-of-age story is based on the best-selling novel by Tomohiko Morimi, author of “Night is Short”, “Walk on Girl” and “The Tatami Galaxy”, and is the feature film debut by a rising star of the anime world, Hiroyasu Ishida.

(2016) by Makoto Shinkai
From director Makoto Shinkai comes a beautiful masterpiece about time, the thread of fate, and the hearts of two young souls. When it was released in 2016, this film became the highest grossing anime film of all time and received numerous awards and accolades.

(2009) by Takeshi Koike
Produced by the acclaimed studio Madhouse (“Death Note”, “Paprika”, “Overlord”) and directed by Takeshi Koike, Redline took seven years and over 100,000 hand-drawn frames to make. Having never received a wide cinema release in the UK, join us for an incredibly rare chance to see this masterpiece of animation on the big screen!

To bring this feast to life the Festival has partnered with Picturehouse cinemas, a champion of independent and world cinema in the UK. The first Anime Film Festival will be hosted at Picturehouse Central, their flagship cinema in Piccadilly Circus. Films will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles and individual tickets can be bought through the Picturehouse website, with “early double” (Mirai & Penguin Highway), “late double” (your name. & Redline).

Full festival passes available from the official website.

About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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