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'Animation Is Film Festival' 2018 Line-Up Announced

Last year the inaugural Animation Is Film Festival took place in Hollywood, bringing a new international animation festival to the US. The festival is a collaboration between Annecy International, GKIDS Films, ASIFA Hollywood and Variety.

The event will return for a second year on October 19-21 at the world-famous Mann's Chinese Theater.

This year's opening film will be the North American Premiere Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai, accompanied by a Q&A with Hosoda himself. The film will have screenings of both the original language and dubbed editions. The new film will also be accompanied by a retrospective of Hosoda's previous works, with the director also in attendance for screenings of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children, Summer Wars and The Boy And The Beast.

Also from Japan, Penguin Highway, Okko's Inn and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas will all screen at the fest. Studio Ponoc's Anthology film Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Film Theater, Vol. 1 will have its world premiere, accompanied by a Q&A with producer Yoshiaki Nishimura.


Pachamama, the new film from Academy Award-nominated Didier Brunner, producer of Triplets of Belleville, The Secret of Kells, and Ernest & Celestine, and director Juan Antin, will also have its world premiere at Animation Is Film, with a director Q & A. Other premieres are Funan, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Another Day Of Life and Tito And The Birds. 

Other screenings with accompanying filmmaker Q&As are Nina Paley's Seder-Masochism, This Magnificent Cake and The Prince Of Egypt.

The festival will also feature special event previews of upcoming releases Raph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse. Ruben Brandt, Collector will screen as this year's final film.

The prize-winning films will be selected by a Jury, consisting of several animation film-makers, critics and industry figures, including Henry Selick, Jorge Guiterrez, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and Dean DeBlois. An audience award will also be selected.

Full schedule and tickets are available on the website, now