The BFI Announces Its Anime Weekender At BFI Southbank

The BFI’s Anime Weekend returns to BFI Southbank from Friday 3 – Sunday 5 June; this much anticipated biennial event boasts an excellent selection of recent work, as well as previews of the best forthcoming anime releases. The weekend celebration will mark Manga Entertainment’s 25th birthday as well as pay tribute to Japanese science fiction writer Satoshi Ito, who died in 2009 aged 34.

The weekend event will mark the anniversary of the biggest names in anime, Manga Entertainment, with a screening of the legendary and eerily prophetic Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995) alongside the franchise’s latest edition Ghost in the Shell: the New Movie (Kazuya Nomura, 2015) returning to the tale in 2029. Ghost in the Shell’s director, Mamoru Oshii, recently directed his first English-language live-action film Garm Wars: The Last Druid (2014), which will also be screened during the weekend.

In honour of the late Satoshi Ito, there will be will be screenings of two adaptions of his sci-fi novels including a preview of Harmony (Michael Arias, Takashi Nakamura, 2015) and Empire of the Corpses (Ryôtarô Makihara, 2015), based on his third book and unfinished fourth book respectively. The screening of Harmony will be followed by a Q&A with director Michael Arias. Arias has had a varied filmmaking career, spanning the worlds of visual effects, computer graphics, and traditional animation; early in his career he worked as a camera assistant on the motion control stages of such effects-heavy films as The Abyss and Total Recall and he later created digital sequences for the likes of David Cronenberg, the Coen Brothers, and Spike Lee. In 2003 Arias produced the Matrix-inspired anthology film The Animatrix, and in 2006 made his feature directing debut with Tekkonkinkreet, which was shown at the 2007 Berlinale and was awarded Japan’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Two films which featured in the BFI London Film Festival last year will preview during the weekend celebration. The latest Studio Ghibli film When Marnie Was There (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2014), will receive a special family preview. The Oscar-nominated film is an exquisitely hand-drawn treat, and if Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki are to be believed, it is the final Studio Ghibli for the foreseeable future. There will also be a preview of The Boy and the Beast (2015), the latest film from the great Mamoru Hosoda, director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children.

SCREENING DURING THE ANIME WEEKEND:

Preview: Harmony Hâmonî + Q&A with director Michael Arias

Japan,2015 | Dir.Michael Arias, Takashi Nakamura.| Miyuki Sawashiro, Reina Ueda, Aya Suzaki.| Courtesy of Anime Ltd
Medical advances have brought the world to a safe but oppressive ‘utopian’ state. The world balance finds itself threatened when a sudden crisis erupts. Directors Arias (Animatrix, Tekkonkinkreet) and Nakamura (A Tree of Palme) team up to bring Satoshi Ito’s sci-fi novel to the big screen – one of three Project Itoh works animated in 2015.
FRI 3 JUN 18:00 NFT1

Empire of the Corpses Shisha no teikoku

Japan 2015.| Dir Ryôtarô Makihara.|Yoshimasa Hosoya, Ayumu Murase, Kana Hanazawa.| 120mins
Our second Project Ito adaptation in this anime weekend is set in a parallel 19th-century Europe where human corpses have been re-animated to provide military muscle and slave labour. In London, John Watson is set upon discovering the missing component – the soul – and restoring humanity to these creatures. Peppered with literary and historical characters throughout, Empire of the Corpses is an intriguing mix of genres.
FRI 3 JUN 20:50 NFT1

Preview: The Boy and the Beast Bakemono no ko

Japan 2015 | Dir Mamoru Hosoda.| Kôji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki, Shôta Sometani|119min Digital| PG (suitable for ages 8+). Courtesy of STUDIOCANAL
When Ren runs away he finds a secret entrance to a town of beasts and becomes apprentice to Kumatetsu, a self-centred creature who wants to become the new Beast Lord. This unlikely duo struggle at first, but when Ren leaves, Kumatetsu finds himself in danger and needs his young friend’s help. Hosoda’s follow up to Wolf Children proves he’s an anime force to be reckoned with.
SAT 4 JUN 15:30 NFT1

Ghost in the Shell Kôkaku Kidôtai Gosuto In Za Sheru

Japan 1995.| Dir Mamoru Oshii.| Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Ôtsuka, Iemasa Kayumi | 82min |Video | 15
We celebrate the 25th birthday of distributor Manga Entertainment with a screening of this anime classic, itself 21-years-old. Beautifully animated and disturbingly prophetic, Ghost in the Shell is a futuristic tale centring on Public Security Section 9’s hunt for supreme hacker The Puppet Master. This is a world where governments are dependent on computer controlled systems, and cyber terrorists pose the biggest threat to global stability.
SAT 4 JUN 18:15 NFT1

Ghost in the Shell: the New Movie Kôkaku Kidôtai – Shin Gekijôban

Japan 2015 | Dir.Kazuya Nomura.| Maaya Sakamoto, Ikkyuu Juku, Kenichiro Matsuda|99min |Video.
In this next edition of the popular franchise, it’s 2029 and Major Motoko Kusanagi returns with Public Security Section 9 to investigate a group of cyborg ex-soldiers who have taken a number of hostages. The assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister leads to a discovery that could implicate some significant adversaries and the movement of hundreds of billions of dollars.
SAT 4 JUN 20:45 NFT1

Preview: When Marnie Was There Omoide No Mani

Japan 2014 | Dir Hiromasa Yonebayashi | Hailee Steinfeld, Ava Acres, Geena Davis | 103min |Digital | U (suitable for ages 8+). Courtesy of STUDIOCANAL
Anna is a sickly girl who’s sent to live with relatives near the seaside, where she meets Marnie. Marnie claims to live in the mansion across the marsh, which at times seems dilapidated and at other times not… What’s Marnie’s secret? This Oscar®-nominated film from Studio Ghibli is an exquisitely hand-drawn treat.
SUN 5 JUN 12:40 NFT1

Garm Wars: The Last Druid

Japan-Canada 2014| Dir Mamoru Oshii | Lance Henriksen, Kevin Durand, Melanie St-Pierre |88min |Video |12A
A clone war has overtaken the world with three tribes battling for air, land and technology. When one clone finds herself lost and on the run, she falls in with an unlikely group. This visually stunning live-action tale has a cyberpunk aesthetic and is the first English language outing for Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii.
SUN 5 JUN 17:20 NFT3

Psycho-Pass: The Movie Gekijôban Psycho-Pass

Japan 2015 | Dirs Katsuyuki Motohiro, Naoyoshi Shiotani.|Kana Hanazawa, Noriko Hidaka, Unshô Ishizuka | 113min.
Inspector Tsunemori has an attempted terrorist attack to deal with and what’s more – her chief suspect is her former partner, who now lives within a dictatorship zone with some very dangerous people. This anime action-adventure will please fans of the TV franchise but is also self-contained: a plus for newcomers to the Psycho-Pass world.
SUN 5 JUN 20:00 NFT3

The BFI Southbank is open to all. BFI members are entitled to a discount on all tickets. BFI Southbank Box Office tel: 020 7928 3232. Unless otherwise stated tickets are £11.00, concs £8.50 Members pay £1.50 less on any ticket – www.bfi.org.uk/southbank. Young people aged 25 and under can buy last minute tickets for just £3, 45 minutes before the start of screenings and events, subject to availability – http://www.bfi.org.uk/25-and-under.
Tickets for FREE screenings and events must be booked in advance by calling the Box Office to avoid disappointment