Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, a leading launching pad for emerging Japanese and world filmmakers, has unveiled the line-up for its 19th edition, which will be held July 16-24, 2022, at venues in Kawaguchi, a Tokyo suburb. In addition to its first physical screenings in three years, the festival will present an online segment July 21-27.
The president of the international competition jury is Terajima Shinobu, winner of the best actress silver bear at the 2010 Berlinale for her performance in Wakamatsu Koji’s WWII drama “Caterpillar.” The president of the Japanese film competition jury is cinematographer Ashizawa Akiko.
The opening film is “Deadly School,” a coming-of-age ensemble drama about high school girls prepping for their school festival, directed by three-time Skip City winner Isobe Teppei and adapted from Asakusa Kaoru’s hit play.
The festival will also screen two Ukrainian films from past editions: Alina Gorlova’s “This Rain Will Never Stop” and Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er’s “Love Me.” Proceeds will go to support humanitarian aid activities in Ukraine.
Launched in 2004 to showcase films shot in the then-new digital format, Skip City has since shifted its focus to features and shorts by up-and-coming filmmakers. Among past winners who moved on to major careers are three-times Cannes best director honoree Nuri Bilge Ceylan, as well as Japanese directors Shiraishi Kazuya (“Blood of Wolves”), Nakano Ryota (“The Asadas”) and Ueda Shinichiro (“One Cut of the Dead”).
This year the festival also will present two films by recent Skip City award winners: Kayano Takayuki’s humanistic comedy “Hoarder on the Border”; and Sanada Mikiya’s “Princess of Euglena,” the second in his “Euglena” comedy series about a female parking inspector. Both are world premieres.