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
Guest: Atsushi WADA 和田淳
Children’s Animation: Rita & Whatsit
Nippon Connection 2013, 4-9 June 2013
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation
Guest: Mitsuko OKAMOTO 岡本 美津子
Talk: Kihachiro Kawamoto's Quest tor the Ultimate Expression of Puppets (Catherine Munroe Hotes)
Nippon Connection 2014, May -1 June 2014
Guest: Kōji YAMAMURA 山村浩二
Nippon Connection 2015, 2-7 June 2015
Guests: Yūichi ITŌ 伊藤 有壱 & Yuki Hayashi 林 祐己
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
Nippon Connection 2017, 23-28 May 2017
Guests: Taruto FUYAMA 布山タルト & Hayato NOVE 野辺ハヤト
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
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
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
Tokyo University of the Arts Animation with guest Sayaka ONODAKA
Nippon Connection 2024, 28 May - 2 June 2024
Guests: Maya Yonesho and Çağıl Harmandar