JFF16: Japanese Film Festival Announces 2012 Dates

Friends: Naki of Monster Island

Japanese Film festival LogoThe 16th Japanese Film Festival has announced the 2012 dates for its two flagship cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydney will kick off on 14 to 25 November, at the usual haunt of Event Cinemas on George Street, while Melbourne will follow shortly afterwards on 29 November to 9 December in two locations, Hoyts Melbourne Central and ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Titles already announced include the crowd-pleasing Always 3: Sunset on Third Street ’64, the popular Space Brothers, a live-action Japanese movie directed by Yoshitaka Mori and based on a manga by Chuya Koyama, and Japanese Academy  Award winning Director Takashi Yamazaki’s newly animated feature Friends: Naki on the Monster Island.

The Japanese Film Festival will also travel with free abridged programs to two new Australian cities – Darwin and Cairns with dates to be confirmed. This is in addition to  the already touring cities of Perth, Hobart and Canberra. Films travelling to these cities are the popular teenage romance, Hanamizuki and last year’s tear-jerker, Star Watching Dog.