Nippon Connection is a festival for

Japanese film The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced, producing 634 fi ...

which takes place in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany, every year in early summer. The festival is organized by the

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

“Nippon Connection e.V.”. Nippon Connection has become the biggest platform for contemporary Japanese film worldwide, with about 19,000 participants in 2024. The 25th festival edition will take place May 27 to June 1, 2025.

History

In 1999 two German students of film studies, Marion Klomfass and Holger Ziegler, decided to show some Japanese films at the

Goethe University Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

. The organizers began by planning for 1,500 visitors, but interest quickly grew and the first edition of the festival in 2000 had more than 10,000 visitors. Thirteen films were screened, and two Japanese filmmakers attended that year. After a one year break, during which the non-profit association Nippon Connection e.V. was founded, the second Nippon Connection Film Festival took place. The festival center was located at the Students’ House of the

in Frankfurt am Main. In 2002 a new category for digital productions (''Nippon Digital'') was created. As well, an exhibition was arranged in cooperation with the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and the ''Nippon Connection Newcomer Award'' for the best up-coming film production was introduced. At the Nippon Connection Film Festival 2003, a retrospective (''Nippon Retro'') was held the first time in cooperation with the German Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main. Additional events were also organized in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Frankfurt. In 2004 parts of the program were sent on tour to Leipzig and Barcelona. The festival organizers were invited to Tokyo to take part in a symposium on the impact of Japanese films abroad by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho). In 2005 the tour program was extended and the ''Nippon Cinema Award'' was introduced. In 2007 the Kinema Club held its first European conference at Nippon Connection. That year 170 films were shown. For the 10th anniversary in 2010, the ''Nippon Digital Award'' was established to support rising talents. The winner, chosen by a professional jury, receives a free subtitling for his or her next film. The ''Nippon Digital Award'' was renamed in 2011 into the ''Nippon Visions Award''. 2010 was the last year that parts of the ''Nippon Visions'' section, which focuses on independent productions, were distributed worldwide to cities including

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

under the designation ''Nippon Connection Film Festival on Tour''. In 2012 the children’s program ''Nippon Kids'' was established. From 2012 until 2014, the VGF ''Nippon in Motion Award'' was given to the director of the best 12-second spot. In 2013, the festival was extended to six days, and the main venues were moved to the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Theater Willy Praml in der Naxoshalle. Further venues include the cinema at the German Film Museum, the Mal Seh’n cinema, the gallery Ausstellungsraum Eulengasse, and the theater Die Käs. Also in 2013 the festival director Marion Klomfass received an honorary award for her outstanding commitment to the support and promotion of Japanese-German exchange from the Japanese

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

(Gaimu Daijin Hyosho). In 2014 the ''Nippon Visions Award'' became the ''Nippon Visions Jury Award''. Also, an audience award, the ''Nippon Visions Audience Award'', was created. That year the festival drew more than 16,000 visitors. The 15th edition of the festival in 2015 saw the introduction of the ''Nippon Honor Award'' for personalities who have made an outstanding contribution to Japanese cinema in their careers. In 2018 the new section ''Nippon Docs'' was introduced. In 2020, due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID 19 pandemics, the festival took place exclusively online for the first time from 9 to 14 June 2020 using a video-on-demand platform provided by

Shift72 Shift72 is a New Zealand-based company that facilitates White-label product, white-label video streaming platforms. It was founded in 2008. Shift72 is best known for facilitating online film festivals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which ...

. Tokachi Tsuchiya received the Nippon Online Award for the documentary film An Ant Strikes Back for the first time. Also in 2020 the festival team received the JaDe award in Cologne. In 2023, the new ''Nippon Rising Star Award'' was introduced. Its first awardee was the singer and actress

Toko Miura Toko is a small rural settlement 10 kilometres east of Stratford, New Zealand, at the intersection of East Road ( State Highway 43) and Toko Road. It is located on a railway, the Stratford–Okahukura Line, the western portion of which was o ...

. In 2024, the jury prize Nippon Storytelling Award was presented for the first time for the best screenplay in the Nippon Visions section. Directors and actors who have attended the festival: Koji Yakusho,

Shinobu Terajima is a Japanese actress. Her feature films include '' Akame 48 Waterfalls'' (2003) and '' Vibrator'' (2003). For her role in ''Caterpillar'' (2010), Terajima won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival while her perform ...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic, author, actor, and a former professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (2005-2023). Noted for his psychological films that often focus on ambiguous narratives and on their characters' i ...

Shinya Tsukamoto is a Japanese filmmaker and actor. With a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad, Tsukamoto is best known for his body horror/Japanese cyberpunk, cyberpunk film ''Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989), which is considered the defining ...

Nobuhiro Yamashita is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Aichi Prefecture, Yamashita attended Osaka University of Arts where he worked on Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's '' Kichiku Dai Enkai''. His graduation film ''Hazy Life'', took the Off Theatre Competition Grand ...

Toshiaki Toyoda is a Japanese film director and screenwriter based in Komae, Tokyo. He is best known for his feature films '' Blue Spring'' (2001), ''9 Souls'' (2003) and ''Hanging Garden'' (2005), which, among others, have garnered him an international cult fol ...

Yuki Tanada is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Born in Kitakyushu, Tanada pursued theater in high school before entering the Image Forum Institute of the Moving Image to study filmmaking. Her newest work, My Broken Mariko, released on September 3 ...

, Koji Wakamatsu,

Isao Yukisada is a Japanese film director from Kumamoto. He served as assistant director on Shunji Iwai's ''Love Letter'', ''April Story'', and '' Swallowtail Butterfly''. Filmography Director * ''Open House'' (1998) * (Sunflower) (2000) * ''A Closing Day' ...

, Ryuichi Hiroki,

Sakura Ando is a Japanese actress. She is best known for appearing in critically-acclaimed films such as Sion Sono's ''Love Exposure'', Hirokazu Kore-eda's ''Shoplifters'' (2018) and ''Monster'' (2023), as well as Takashi Yamazaki's Academy Award–winni ...

Kiyohiko Shibukawa is a Japanese fashion model actor. He debuted as a model under the name Kee, but changed his name to "Kiyohiko Shibukawa" in 2006. He has appeared in more than 60 films since 1998. Selected filmography Film Television Awards and nominations ...

Miwa Nishikawa is a Japanese director and screenwriter. Nishikawa received a degree in literature from the University of Waseda, and after working on several independent films as well as catching the eye of Hirokazu Kore-eda, her film making career took off wi ...

, Shuichi Okita,

Koji Yamamura Koji, Kōji, Kohji or Kouji may refer to: *Kōji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Kōji (Heian period) (康治), Japanese era, 1142–1144 *Kōji (Muromachi period) (弘治), Japanese era, 1555–1558 *Koji orange, a Japanese citrus ...

Shinsuke Sato is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He has directed several live-action film adaptations of manga and anime, including ''The Princess Blade'' (2001), ''Gantz'' (2011), ''I Am a Hero'' (2016), ''Bleach (2018 film), Bleach'' (2018), ''I ...

Koji Fukada is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Born in Tokyo, Fukada had a father who was a film aficionado and he watched many films on VHS when he was young. It was when he was 19 years old studying at Taisho University and discov ...

Kaori Momoi is a Japanese actress. Life and career Momoi was born in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 12, she traveled to London to study dance at the Royal Ballet Academy. After three years, she returned to Tokyo. She graduated from Japan's Bungakuza School ...

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri is a Japanese film director. Career Kumakiri debuted with ''Kichiku'' in 1997. His 2001 film, ''Hole in the Sky'', starred Susumu Terajima and Yuriko Kikuchi. His 2004 film, ''Green Mind, Metal Bats'', screened at the International Film Fest ...

, Akiko Oku and more.

Programme

Each year Nippon Connection shows more than 100 short and

feature films A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

, mostly as German, European or international premieres. The film program is divided into five sections: Nippon Cinema, Nippon Animation, Nippon Visions, Nippon Docs and Nippon Retro. Many Japanese filmmakers present their works personally and participate in panel discussions. In 2019 more than 70 filmmakers and other artists from Japan visited the festival. The ''Nippon Culture'' section presents lectures, performances, and workshops on various topics of

Japanese culture Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral ...

. This includes

tea ceremony Tea ceremony is a ritualized practice of making and serving tea (茶 ''cha'') in East Asia practiced in the Sinosphere. The original term from China (), literally translated as either "''way of tea''", "''etiquette for tea or tea rite''",Heiss, M ...

taiko are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various J ...

drumming workshops,

Japanese calligraphy , also called , is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Japanese writing system, Written Japanese was originally based on Man'yōgana, Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japane ...

, dance and martial arts performances. In the evenings, there are usually live concerts or parties. International experts on Japanese film give open lectures about various aspects Japanese cinema.

Award Winners

Nippon Connection Newcomer Award (2002) * 2002 Blue Spring (''Aoi haru'') by

Nippon Cinema Award (since 2005) * 2005 Turn Over - An Angel is Coming on a Bicycle (''Tenshi wa jitensha ni notte'') by Keiichi Nomura * 2006

University of Laughs is a story by Japanese dramatist Kōki Mitani which began as a play in 1996 starring actors Masahiko Nishimura as the Censor and Yoshimasa Kondo as the Playwright. The play won the Best Play Award at the 1996 Yomiuri Theater Awards. After tha ...

(''Warai no daigaku'') by Mamoru Hoshi * 2007 La Maison de Himiko (''Mezon do Himiko'') by

Isshin Inudo is a Japanese film director. Career Inudo began making films on his own in high school, with one of his works being selected for the 1979 Pia Film Festival. After attending Tokyo Zokei University, he found work at Asahi Promotions where he bega ...

* 2008 Fine, Totally Fine (''Zenzen daijōbu'') by Yosuke Fujita * 2009 Detroit Metal City by Toshio Lee * 2010 Oblivion Island: Haruka And The Magic Mirror (''Hottarake no shima: Haruka to mahō no kagami'') by

* 2011 Arrietty (''Karigurashi no Arietti'') by

Hiromasa Yonebayashi , nicknamed , is a Japanese animator and director, formerly for Studio Ghibli. After his directorial debut with Studio Ghibli ('' The Secret World of Arrietty''), he became the youngest director of a theatrical film produced by the studio. He was ...

* 2012 The Woodsman and the Rain (''Kitsutsuki to ame'') by Shuichi Okita * 2013

Key of Life is a 2012 Japanese comedy film directed by Kenji Uchida. The film opened in Japan on September 15, 2012. The movie's theme song was written and performed by Kazuya Yoshii. The movie was remade in Korean in 2016 as ''Luck Key''. Plot synopsis Th ...

(''Kagi dorobō no mesoddo'') by Kenji Uchida * 2014 Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days (''Pekorosu no haha ni ai ni iku'') by

Azuma Morisaki was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Morisaki was born in Nagasaki Prefecture and graduated from Kyoto University. After editing the film magazine ''Jidai Eiga'', he joined the Shochiku studio in 1956. Moving from the Kyoto t ...

* 2015 Uzumasa Limelight by Ken Ochiai * 2016 Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen (''Ryūzō to shichinin no kobuntachi'') by

Takeshi Kitano , also known as in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. During hi ...

* 2017 The Long Excuse (''Nagai iiwake)'' by

* 2018 Oh Lucy! by Atsuko Hirayanagi *2019

Fly Me to the Saitama is a 2019 Japanese comedy film directed by Hideki Takeuchi, based on the 1980s manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Mineo Maya. It was released to critical acclaim and received 12 nominations at the 43rd Japan Academy Film P ...

(''Tonde Saitama'') by Hideki Takeuchi *2021 his by

Rikiya Imaizumi is a Japanese film director. Filmography Film TV series References External links * * 1981 births Japanese film directors Japanese television directors Living people People from Fukushima Prefecture People from Kōriyama 21s ...

*2022

The Asadas ''The Asadas'' () is a 2020 Japanese biographical drama film written by Ryōta Nakano and Tomoe Kanno and directed by Nakano. The film was part of the official selection for the Warsaw Film Festival and the 26th Busan International Film Festival ...

(''Asadake!'') by Ryota Nakano *2023 Yudo by Masayuki Suzuki *2024 Let's Go Karaoke! (''Karaoke iko!'') by

Nippon Digital Award (2010) * 2010 Live Tape by Tetsuaki Matsue Nippon Visions Award (2011–2013) * 2011 Doman Seman (''Horikawanakatachiuri'') by Gō Shibata; Special Mention: Door to the Sea (''Umi e no Tobira'') by Reiko Ohashi * 2012 The Sound of Light (''Hikari no oto'') by Juichiro Yamasaki; Special Mention: Fukushima: Memories of a Lost Landscape (''Soma kanka: dai ichi bu - ubawareta tochi no kioku'') by Yojyu Matsubayashi * 2013 A2-B-C by Thomas Ash Nippon Visions Audience Award (since 2014) * 2014 Tale of a Butcher Shop (''Aru seinikuten no hanashi'') by Aya Hanabusa * 2015 -1287 by Thomas Ash * 2016 Under the Cherry Tree (''Sakura no ki no shita'') by Kei Tanaka * 2017 Start Line by Ayako Imamura * 2018 Ramen Heads by Koki Shigeno *2019 Melancholic by Seiji Tanaka *2021 Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (''Droste no hate de bokura'') by Junta Yamaguchi *2022 Just The Two Of Us (''Futari no sekai'') by Keita Fujimoto *2023 Hoarder On The Border (''Danshari paradaisu'') by Takayuki Kayano *2024 SEPTEMBER 1923 (''Fukudamura jiken'') by

Tatsuya Mori is a Japanese documentary filmmaker, TV director, and author. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Mori graduated from Rikkyo University, where he appeared in the student films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After graduating, he tried acting and even a ...

Nippon Visions Jury Award (since 2014) * 2014 Antonym (''Rasen ginga'') by Natsuka Kusano / Special Mention: Friendship (Tomodachi) by Mikihiro Endo *2015 The Cockpit by Sho Miyake / Special Mention: Treasure Ship: Latitudes of Lust (''Shikido shiju hatte: takarabune'') by Koichiro Ikawa and Dual City by Yokna Hasegawa * 2016 Dear Deer by Takeo Kikuchi / Special Mention: Under the Cherry Tree (''Sakura no ki no shita'') by Kei Tanaka and The Man Who Was Eaten (''Taberareru otoko'') by Keisuke Kondo * 2017 Poolsideman by Hirobumi Watanabe / Special Mention: Going the Distance (''Kazoku e'') by Yujiro Harumoto * 2018 Trace of Breath (''Iki no ato'') by Haruka Komori / Special Mention: Of Love & Law by Hikaru Toda * 2019 Sea (''Kaibatsu'') by Kensei Takahashi / Special Mention: Blue Hour (''Buru awa ni buttobasu'') by Yuko Hakota * 2021 Along The Sea (''Umibe no kanojotachi'') by Akio Fujimoto / Special Mention: Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (''Droste no hate de bokura'') by Junta Yamaguchi * 2022 Unlock Your Heart (''Hiraite'') by Rin Shuto / Special Mention: Let Me Hear It Barefoot (''Hadashi de narashite misero'') by Riho Kudo * 2023 Your Lovely Smile (''Anata no hohoemi'') by Kah Wai Lim / Special Mention: Sayonara, Girls. (''Shojo wa sotsugyo shinai'') by Shun Nakagawa * 2024 LONESOME VACATION by Atsuro Shimoyashiro / Special Mention: Visitors –Complete Edition– (''Akuma ga harawata de ikenie de watashi'') by Kenichi Ugana VGF Nippon in Motion Award (2012–2014) * 2012 koi-man by Micaela Fonseca * 2013 Nippon Invasion by Michael Herber & Liwen Shen * 2014 Onigiri no origami (Bierfest) by Christine Mai & David Clausmeier Nippon Honor Award (2015-2022) * 2015

Tadanobu Asano better known by his stage name is a Japanese actor, director, and musician, who has had an extensive career working in both Japanese and international cinema. He has been nominated for five Japan Academy Film Prizes, twice for Best Actor and ...

* 2016

* 2017

Kōji Yakusho , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor. He is known internationally for his starring roles in ''Shall We Dance?'' (1996), ''Cure'' (1997), '' 13 Assassins'' (2010), '' The Third Murder'' (2017), '' The Blood of Wolves'' (2018), '' Und ...

* 2018

*2019

*2022

Masatoshi Nagase is a Japanese actor and singer. He is best known in the West for his roles in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's ''Cold Fever'' and Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train (film), Mystery Train''. Nagase was described by Todd Brown of Twitch Film as "one of t ...

Nippon Docs Award (since 2019) * 2019 Sending Off (''Omiokuri 〜Sending Off〜'') by Thomas Ash *2021 Ushiku by Thomas Ash *2022 Tokyo Kurds by Fumiari Hyuga *2023 My Anniversaries (''Ore no kinenbi'') by Sungwoong Kim *2024 The Making Of A Japanese by Ema Ryan Yamazaki Nippon Online Award * 202
An Ant Strikes Back
(''Ari jigoku tengoku'') by Tokachi Tsuchiya Nippon Rising Star Award (since 2023) * 2023

* 2024 Kotone Furukawa Nippon Storytelling Award (since 2024) * 2024 Junichi Inoue for HIJACKED YOUTH – DARE TO STOP US 2 (''Seishun jakku – Tomerareruka, oretachi o 2'')

Jury members

* 2010 Bernd Brehmer, Roland Domenig, Jasper Sharp * 2011 Maggie Lee, Tom Mes, Rüdiger Suchsland * 2012 Chris Magee, Andreas Platthaus, Yonghi Yang * 2013 Keiko Araki, Tetsuaki Matsue, Ken Okubo * 2014 Alex Oost,

Mark Schilling Mark Schilling (born 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, translator, and author based in Tokyo, Japan. He has written for ''The Japan Times'', '' Variety'', and ''Screen International''. Biography Schilling began working for ''The Japa ...

, Alexander Zahlten * 2015

, Ryuichi Hiroki, Tokitoshi Shiota * 2016 Gunter Deller, Yuka Kimbara, Shozo Ichiyama * 2017 Bastian Meiresonne, Yuka Sakano,

* 2018 Hiromi Aihara, Daniel Otto,

* 2019 Eric Nyari, Tetsuya Shibutani, Katja Wiederspahn * 2021 Thomas Ash, Ellen Harrington, Toshiyuki Hasegawa * 2022 Gaby Babić, Erina Ito, Adam Torel * 2023 Claudia Bertolé, Daishi Matsunaga, Karen Severns * 2024 Kristina Aschenbrennerova, Daniel Kothenschulte,

Naoko Ogigami is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. She first began gaining attention after winning several prizes at the PIA Film Festival for her short film ''Hoshino-Kun, Yumeno-Kun'' (2001). Among her most notable works are her f ...

Retrospectives

* 2003 Shuji Terayama * 2004 Anime Classics – Early Japanese Animated Films (1924 - 1944) * 2005

Seijun Suzuki , born (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their florid visual style, absurd humour, and a playful rejection of traditional film grammar. He made 40 predominately ...

* 2006 Exploding Japan – Subversive Genre Cinema of the 60s and 70s * 2007 Shooting the Sun – Japanese Experimental Film from 1960 until Today * 2008 Wizards of Japanese Independent Animation: 1960s - Today * 2009 Sexploitation and Experimentation: The Many Shades of

Pink Film refers in Japan to movies produced by independent studios that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. Many pink films would be a ...

. * 2010 Best of Nippon Connection 2000-2009 * 2011

Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet. Best known on the Film festival, festival circuit for the film ''Love Exposure'' (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese cinema today", a "Stakhanovite movement, ...

* 2012 Visual Resistance: Protest Culture in Japanese Documentaries * 2013 Eccentric and Explosive - The Cinema of Sogo Ishii * 2014 Ko Nakahira - The Wild Child of the Sixties * 2015 Luminous and Vibrant - The Cinema of Shinji Somai * 2016 Ghosts and Demons - Scary Tales from Japan * 2017 Ecstasy & Desire - In the Realm of

Roman Porno refers in Japan to movies produced by independent studios that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. Many pink films would be an ...

* 2018 Elegance & Bloodshed - Japanese Sword Fighting Films from the 1960s *2019 Ayako Wakao – Magnificent Icon Of Japanese Cinema *2020 Tokyo Stories: Lives And Shapes Of A City *2021

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...

*2022 Stories Of Youth *2023

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and ...

*2024 Nippon Noir

Thematic focus

Since 2019, each festival features a thematic focus across several sections. * 2019 Outlaws and Outsiders – Cinematic Insights Into the Margins Of Japanese Society * 2020 Female Futures? – New Visions Of Women In Japan * 2021 Family Matters – The Japanese Family between Tradition and Modernity * 2022 Stories Of Youth – Coming Of Age In Japan * 2023 Cityscapes And Countryside – Contrasting Lives In Japan * 2024 Crossing Borders

Design

The corporate design of the festival has been one of its trademarks since it was first held in 2000. The colors range from soft rose colors to bright pink.

Music

In addition to the film and cultural programs, the festival team has created music CDs. Sounds recorded in the Tokyo subway were used by German musicians to produce an imaginary soundtrack of the Japanese megacity. This album, ''Nippon Connection – The Tokyo Metro Soundtrack'', was released in 2003 by Label Ckp. In April 2005 the second CD album, ''Nippon Connection Exchanging Tracks'', was released by das modular. Two traditional Japanese pieces of music were made available to 28 remix artists in Europe and the US, who then produced their own personal soundtracks. The festival team gave these compositions to Japanese film directors, who created short films under the project name ''Exchanging Tracks''.

Organization

The festival is organized by the non-profit association Nippon Connection e.V. on a voluntary basis. The organizational team consists of more than 70 people. During the festival, more than 100 additional volunteers support the team. The budget is made up of the festival’s revenues as well as several subsidies and sponsorship payments. Nippon Connection is a member of the Verbund hessischer Filmfestivals (Network of Hessian film festivals) and AG Filmfestival. In 2020, 2021 and 2022

Angela Dorn Angela Dorn-Rancke (born 2 June 1982) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as the State Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts of Hesse in the cabinet of Minister-President Volker Bouffier from 2019 ...

, Hessian Minister for Science and Art,

Peter Feldmann Peter Manuel Feldmann (born 7 October 1958) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). On 25 March 2012, he was elected Mayor of Frankfurt as successor of Petra Roth (CDU). On 6 November 2022, he was recalled, with 95% of ...

, Mayor of the City of Frankfurt, and the Consulate-General of Japan acted as official patrons of the festival. In 2023, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main, followed Peter Feldmann.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official WebsiteDocumentary Nippon Connection Filmfestival 2014Nippon Connection 2005, Teil II: ''Fascination and Cherry Blossom Kitsch'' (in German)

Nippon Connection 2006: ''From Tokyo with Love'' (in German)Nippon Connection 2007: ''The Japanese Dream'' (in German)Nippon Connection 2008: ''Drama, Drama, Drama'' (in German)Nippon Connection 2008: ''Radicals in the Ghost Train'' (in German)Nippon Connection 2014: ''A Festival Report'' (in German)Nippon Connection 2016: ''Frankfurt's Nippon Connection brings together an extensive collection of Japanese films''
Film festivals in Germany Culture in Frankfurt Cinema of Japan