Japan

A seductively unworldly and virtually wordless love story from the director of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. “This is a Zen comedy, full of beautifully distilled moments.” — Financial Times

Blonde action babe Deunan separates the robots from the bioroids in this spectacular exhibition of conventional anime character design amalgamated with state-of-the-art CG effects. “Eye-goggling.” — Screendaily

The great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has made a Japanese family drama to celebrate the centenary of the great Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro. “It is a film about happiness: something you can not see but something that Hou makes poetic, empowering and almost palpable.” — Financial Times

Winding through landscapes of staggering beauty, the year’s most spectacular documentary accompanies a caravan as it traverses the highest and most perilous of the world's ancient routes.

Vast and spectacular, this dazzling anime is also rife with speculation about the meaning of cyberlife. Not for lightweights!

Japan’s answer to Kong in an insanely action packed monster miasma, overflowing with super warriors, cool weapons, snazzy aircraft and more destruction than the last three Godzilla films combined.

This year’s centrepiece is a beauty, thanks to animation genius and long-time Film Festival hero, Miyazaki Hayao. We proudly present the New Zealand premiere screenings of his latest amazing phantasmagoria. “An entertainment full of wonder and charm.” — Variety

This belligerent Japanese indie about the multi-handicapped Sumida, who develops a crush on his new teenage caregiver, offers a satisfying lack of anything patronisingly feel-good or life-affirming.

This long awaited anime extravaganza from the forces behind the epochal Akira takes place in a breathtaking vision of the future, as it might have been dreamt up in the Victorian heyday of steam power.

Japan’s Miike Takashi (Audition, Visitor Q), Korean Cannes winner Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan (Hollywood, Hong Kong) join forces to showcase their considerable skills in this creepy anthology triptych.

Elegantly stylised adaptation of celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s strange story about a solitary illustrator who tastes fulfilment with a woman who can never have too many clothes.

Werner Herzog’s stirring, lyrical documentary about Graham Dorrington, an English engineer who explores the South American rainforest canopy from a silently floating airship.

"We are in the hands of a master… his imagery is so boilingly alive that we come away from it feeling exhilarated rather than depressed." — David Chute, LA Weekly