'The Red Turtle' 'Your Name' and more Screening at 60th BFI London Film Festival
That film is Your Name, the new feature from director Makoto Shinkai (Voices Of A Distant Star, Garden Of Words) based on his own novel, revolving around a young girl and a boy who mysteriously swap consciousnesses. The film recently opened in Japan to great success, and will receive its UK premiere at the festival. Shinkai himself will be in attendance at the festival. Anime Limited will later release it into 78 UK cinemas from November 24th.
Screening as part of the 'Best First Feature Competition' is another eagerly awaited animated feature My Life As A Courgette (US Title My Life As A Zucchini). The Swiss/French stop-motion film won the major awards at this year's Annecy International Animation Festival and is due to be submitted as Switzerland's entry for best foreign language film at the 2016 Oscars.
Outside competition British 2D feature Ethel and Ernest, based on Raymond Briggs' touching graphic novel biography of his parents will screen in the festival's Love strand. Another Annecy success story, surreal Spanish feature Psychonauts, the Forgotten Children will screen as part of the Cult strand.
The Family strand includes a gala screening of DreamWorks Animation's Trolls, Chinese CG flick Rock Dog and Phantom Boy. The biggest news, however, has to be the UK premiere of Michael Dudok De Wit/ Studio Ghibli's The Red Turtle, which will screen as part of the Journey strand. The news is doubly significant as it confirms that StudioCanal has the UK rights to the film, and we can expect a wider release at a later date (although most likely not before next year).
The 60th BFI London Film Festival will take place between 5th-16th October 2016. Buy tickets here.
