Exciting cinema from Japan: Back to Frankfurt am Main

22nd Nippon Connection Film Festival // May 24–29, 2022 on-site again // more than 100 Japanese films // additional online program

Exciting cinema from Japan: From May 24 to 29, 2022, the 22nd Nippon Connection Film Festival returns to the silver screen! After two online festivals, this year’s program of around 100 Japanese short and feature films, as well as talks, workshops, performances and concerts, will once again be held on-site in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The organizing team around festival director Marion Klomfass is looking forward to presenting the upcoming edition of the festival in the well known festival centers Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and the Theater Willy Praml at Naxoshalle. Further venues include the Eldorado Arthouse Kino, the Cinema at the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, the Mal Seh’n Kino, the International Theater and the Bürgerhaus Bornheim.

As it is still unclear which hygiene requirements will be in effect in May, and to make the films available to as many viewers as possible, following the festival from May 30 to June 6, 2022, a portion of the film program will be featured on the festival’s streaming platform under the title Nippon Connection On Demand (in Germany only).

This year’s thematic focus Stories of Youth, sponsored by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, deals with the challenges of adolescence in Japan. Throughout the history of Japanese cinema, young protagonists have been at the center of filmic narratives. The coming-of-age film has thus established itself as a defining genre of Japanese cinema.

Since its beginnings, the exchange between audience and filmmakers has been an integral part of Nippon Connection. This year, fewer guests from Japan are expected to be able to travel to Frankfurt, but many filmmakers will connect live from Japan to the cinemas via video call. As an additional online offer, some on-site events of the supporting program will be available online via live streaming.

The program and tickets are expected to be available on the festival homepage NipponConnection.com from mid-May 2022.

The festival

The Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection is organized by the 70-member, largely voluntary, team of the non-profit association Nippon Connection e.V. It is under the patronage of Angela Dorn, Hessian Minister for Science and Art, Peter Feldmann, Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main, and the Consulate General of Japan in Frankfurt am Main. Since its founding in 2000, Nippon Connection has become the world’s largest platform for Japanese cinema and the most popular film festival in Hesse. A fundraising campaign is running on the online platform betterplace.org: betterplace.org/en/projects/88584.