The world’s largest festival for Japanese cinema returns to Frankfur, presentwithng 140+ films including 7 world premieres…
From June 2 to 7, the 26th Nippon Connection Film Festival will showcase more than 140 short and feature-length films across 13 venues, with around 100 Japanese filmmakers and artists attending the festival in Frankfurt. The selection ranges from box-office success to arthouse and genre cinema, reflecting the diversity of contemporary Japanese cinema.
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The theme of this year is “Shades of Reality – Between Truth and Fiction”, dedicated to exploring how films construct and question reality. Today’s world is filled with misinformation, and the conflict between reality and fiction is becoming more noticeable. Through this programme, the festival invites the audience to challenge and reflect on their own perceptions of the world.
Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho, Japan’s highest-grossing live-action film, will be making an appearance at the festival. Other box-office hits such as Akira Nagai’s mystery-thriller SUZUKI=BAKUDAN and Ayuko Tsukahara’s time-travel romance FIRST KISS will also be screened. Following a celebrated world premiere at the Berlinale, Yusuke Hirota will be in Frankfurt to present his animated feature Chimney Town: Frozen in Time.
Fresh off the success at the 28th Far East Film Festival, two award-winning films are celebrating their German premieres at Nippon Connection, including Taichi Kimura’s female empowerment drama Fujiko, which took home the Golden Mulberry Audience Award. 5 Centimeters per Second, a live-action adaptation of its namesake anime classic and winner of the audience award in FEFF’s digital version, will be shown in the presence of director Yoshiyuki Okuyama.
Fans of genre cinema will have a lot to catch at the festival this year. Comedian Yuriyan Retriever subverts the traditional J-horror convention in her directorial debut MAG MAG, and Ryo Fujii brings the iconic “Tower of the Sun” sculpture to life to save mankind in the peculiar trash spectacle Taroman Expo Explosion. Yusuke Iwasaki’s AnyMart, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale, sees corpses accumulating in a supermarket, throwing an employee’s work off balance.
For those craving unconventional love stories, the festival has a wide selection on offer. Chihiro Amano’s Sato and Sato explores traditional gender roles through the everyday life of a young married couple. Nobuhiro Doi’s second-chance romance A Moon in the Ordinary reunites a divorced man with his teenage sweetheart. Kenji Yamauchi’s erotic comedy A Unique Country in Asia blurs the line between care and sex work. Wataru Takahashi’s quirky musical anime The Obsessed follows a passionate boy whose life is transformed after meeting a gloomy balloon seller.
The festival shines a spotlight on underrepresented voices in Japanese cinema. Director Sachi Hamano and screenwriter Kuninori Yamazaki will be presenting their film Kaneko Fumiko, which follows a young woman’s battle against oppression in 1920s colonial Japan. Also attending the festival is director Yumiko Asano, whose documentary Yuho No Border tells the story of 70-year-old Yuho Asaka who was born with brittle bone disease and later became a vocal activist for disability rights. Turning to queer stories, Kasho Iizuka’s Blue Boy Trial revisits a trial in 1960s Tokyo, where three transgender sex workers become a subject of controversy. Anshul Chauhan’s Tiger follows gay sex worker Taiga through Tokyo’s night scene, using raw imagery to probe into complicated family dynamics.
This year, Anna Yamada is the recipient of the Nippon Rising Award, an honorary award given to an emerging star in the Japanese film industry. Yamada is noted for her empathetic performances in both blockbusters and independent films, and three films of hers, New Group (2025), Little Love (2019) and CHAO (2025) will be screened at the festival.
The subject of this year’s retrospective is Tatsuya Nakadai, a giant in Japanese cinema who passed away at the age of 92 last November. The loss of this extraordinary artist is greatly mourned by the film community. In collaboration with the Japan Foundation, Nippon Connection will be screening nine of Nakadai’s films on analog prints at the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, including Masaki Kobayashi’s Black River (1957), in which Nakadai landed his first major role, as well as Kobayashi’s Harakiri (1962) Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985), titles that propelled him into fame worldwide.
Beyond the screenings, the festival will be hosting over 80 cultural events across the city, including musical and dance performances, as well as art workshops and cooking classes. There will also be a Japanese market featuring food and handicrafts, offering festival-goers an all-rounded experience into Japanese culture.
The Programme at a Glance
NIPPON CINEMA
5 Centimeters per Second by Yoshiyuki OKUYAMA, Japan 2025, German premiere
ALL GREENS by Takashi KOYAMA, Japan 2025, German premiere
AnyMart by Yusuke IWASAKI, Japan 2026
Blue Boy Trial by Kasho IIZUKA, Japan 2025, German premiere
Fiamma by Eiji UCHIDA, Japan 2025, International premiere
FIRST KISS by Ayuko TSUKAHARA, Japan 2025, German premiere
FUJIKO by Taichi KIMURA, Japan 2026, German premiere
How Dare You? by Mipo O, Japan 2025
KOKUHO by Sang-il LEE, Japan 2025
Little Love Song by Kojiro HASHIMOTO, Japan 2019
MAG MAG by Yuriyan Retriever, Japan 2025
A Moon in the Ordinary by Nobuhiro DOI, Japan 2025, International premiere
NEW GROUP by Yuta SHIMOTSU, Japan 2025, German premiere
Night Flower by Eiji UCHIDA, Japan 2025, International premiere
A Pale View of Hills by Kei ISHIKAWA, Japan / UK / Poland 2025, German premiere
SAI: disaster by Yutaro SEKI, Kentaro HIRASE, Japan 2025, German premiere
A Samurai in Time by Junichi YASUDA, Japan 2024
Sato and Sato by Chihiro AMANO, Japan 2025, German premiere
SUZUKI=BAKUDAN by Akira NAGAI, Japan 2025, German premiere
TIGER by Anshul CHAUHAN, Japan 2025, German premiere
TOKYO TAXI by Yoji YAMADA, Japan 2025, German premiere
TWO SEASONS, TWO STRANGERS by Sho MIYAKE, Japan 2025
NIPPON ANIMATION
5 Centimeters per Second (2007) by Makoto SHINKAI, Japan 2007
ChaO by Yasuhiro AOKI, Japan 2025, German premiere
Chimney Town: Frozen in Time by Yusuke HIROTA, Japan 2026
cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood – by Yukimitsu INA, Japan 2025, International premiere
Jinsei by Ryuya SUZUKI, Japan 2025
The Last Blossom by Baku KINOSHITA, Japan 2025, German premiere
A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi SHINOMIYA, Japan / France 2026
The Obsessed by Wataru TAKAHASHI, Japan 2025, International premiere
Sumikkogurashi: The Crispies Adventures in Fluffy Land by Naomi IWATA, Japan 2025, European premiere
NIPPON VISIONS
Ando by Yoshiaki ARAI, Japan 2025, International premiere
AT THE LOVEHOTEL by Santa IKEGAME, Japan 2026, International premiere
Cosmo Corpus by Yokna HASEGAWA, Japan 2025, International premiere
Dawn Chorus by Yoshinori SATO, Japan 2025, International premiere
The Deepest Space in Us by Yasutomo CHIKUMA, Japan 2025, German premiere
I Fell in Love With a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn by Kenichi UGANA, Japan 2025
Kaneko Fumiko by Sachi HAMANO, Japan 2025, European premiere
Kiiroiko by Mika IMAI, Japan / Taiwan 2025, International premiere
LONG NIGHT by Yui KUSAKARI, Japan 2025, International premiere
Saikai Paradise by Keiko TSURUOKA, Japan 2025, European premiere
Taroman Expo Explosion by Ryo FUJI, Japan 2025
A Unique Country in Asia by Kenji YAMAUCHI, Japan 2025, International premiere
NIPPON DOCS
ARUKU by Shiho KATAOKA, USA / Japan 2025, German premiere
Dear Tomorrow by Kaspar ASTRUP SCHRÖDER, Denmark / Sweden / Japan 2025, German premiere
Guardians of the Harvest by Riko HIRO, Japan 2025, International premiere
The Limit by Reika KAMATA, Japan 2024, German premiere
Numakage Public Pool by Shingo OTA, Japan 2025, German premiere
The Ozu Diaries by Daniel RAIM, USA 2025, German premiere
Tetsuyo Turned 104, Living on Her Own by Kazuhiro YAMAMOTO, Japan 2024, European premiere
Yuho No Border by Yumiko ASANO, Japan 2026, International premiere
ZEN & EROS by Miwa YOSHIMINE, Japan 2026, World premiere
NIPPON RETRO
Black River by Masaki KOBAYASHI, Japan 1957
The Face of Another by Hiroshi TESHIGAHARA, Japan 1966
Harakiri by Masaki KOBAYASHI, Japan 1962
Immortal Love by Keisuke KINOSHITA, Japan 1961
Kill! by Kihachi OKAMOTO, Japan 1968
Killer’s Age by Kihachi OKAMOTO, Japan 1967
Portrait of Hell by Shiro TOYODA, Japan 1969
Ran by Akira KUROSAWA, Japan / France 1985
Rise, Fair Sun by Kei KUMAI, Japan 1973
The complete line-up and tickets are available on NipponConnection.com.About the author
Yasmine Chan
Yasmine Chan is a Netherlands‑based film writer and programmer specialising in Asian cinema and socially engaged film criticism.
Read all posts by Yasmine Chan