Nippon Connection





Catherine Munroe Hotes, independent animation curator 

I have been advising the Nippon Connection Film Festival on Japanese animation since 2009. Since 2011, I have curated programmes of animated short films. In recent years, this has been in collaboration with Nippon Connection film program coordinator Florian Höhr

In 2011, Yokohama and Frankfurt am Main became partner cities and this led me to recommend that we invite a selection of student films from the Tokyo University of Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media (known as Geidai), which is based in Naka Ward, Yokohama.  Since 2013, the City of Yokohama Frankfurt Representative Office and the Referat für Internationale Angelegenheiten, Frankfurt have sponsored a programmes of animated short films and guests from Geidai.   

Nippon Connection 2011, 17 April – 1 May 2011 
Filmmaker’s Talk Special: Independent Animation with Mirai MIZUE 水江未来, Nobukai DOI 土居伸彰, and Takeshi NAGATA ナガタタケシ 

Nippon Connection 2012, 2-6 May 2012 
Spaces In Between: Indie Animated Shorts from Japan 
Film Talk: Atsushi WADA 和田淳 
Children’s Animation: Rita & Whatsit 4-9 

Nippon Connection 2013, 4-9 June 2013 

Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Guest: Mitsuko OKAMOTO 岡本 美津子 27 

Nippon Connection 2014, May -1 June 2014 
Guest: Kōji YAMAMURA 山村浩二 
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Kōji Yamamura Retrospective 

Nippon Connection 2015, 2-7 June 2015 
Guests: Yūichi ITŌ 伊藤 有壱 & Yuki Hayashi 林 祐己
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Yūichi Itō Animation Workshop for Kids 
Film Talk with Yūichi Itō 

Nippon Connection 2016, 24-29 May 2016 
Guests: Hiromitsu MURAKAMI村上 寛光 & Maya YONESHO 米正万也 
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 

Nippon Connection 2017, 23-28 May 2017 
 Guests: Taruto FUYAMA 布山タルト & Hayato NOVE 野辺ハヤト 
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Animated Film Workshop with Taruto Fuyama 

Nippon Connection 2018, 29 May – 3 June 2018 
Guests: Yuichi MATSUMOTO 松本祐一 & Yuki HAYASHI 林勇気 
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Paint Your Own Music: Composition Workshop for Kids with Yuichi Matsumoto 

Nippon Connection 2019, 28 May – 2 June 2019 
Guests: Ilan Nguyen イラン・グェン & Ryōji YAMADA 山田遼志 
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation 
Remembering Isao Takahata: A Personal View on Post-War Japan’s most Influential Animation Director by Ilan Nguyen 

Nippon Connection 2020, 9-14 June 2020 Nippon Connection Online 
As part of the festival theme Female Futures? – New Visions of Women in Japan, I put together a programme profiling the work of 4 significant contemporary women animators: Makiko Sukikara鋤柄真希子 (Osaka), Yuki Yoko 幸洋子 (Tokyo), Lisa Fukaya深谷 莉沙 (Valence, France), and Sarina Niheiニヘイサリナ (London/Tokyo). 

Nippon Connection 2021, 1-6 June 2021 Nippon Connection Online 

Nippon Connection 2022, 24-29 May 2022
Dozens of Norths (幾多の北, Koji Yamamura, 2021) 

Nippon Connection 2023, 6-11 June 2023, Screening TBA