Award-Winning Premieres and Special Guest Anna Yamada – A Look at the Program of the 26th Nippon Connection Film Festival

From June 2 to 7, the festival in Frankfurt am Main will present over 130 short and feature-length films and host 80 events celebrating Japanese culture.

The curtain is getting ready to rise on the 26th edition of the Nippon Connection Film Festival with the first glimpse into this year’s program being offered. From June 2 to 7, 2026, over 130 short and feature-length films from Japan will be screened at 13 venues in Frankfurt am Main, ranging from current box office hits and creative animated films to independent productions by young, talented directors. This year’s thematic focus, Shades of Reality – Between Truth and Fiction, explores the tension between staging and reality. The packed culture program, featuring around 80 workshops, lectures, performances, and concerts as well as a Japanese market, invites visitors to experience Japanese culture from a new perspective over the course of six days.

Nippon Connection is to present the latest works by renowned filmmakers, including Sho Miyake’s award-winning drama Two Seasons, Two Strangers, the animated film The Last Blossom – introduced in person by director Baku Kinoshita –, and the German premiere of the gripping thriller SAI: disaster by Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase. Documentaries are especially well represented in this year’s program. For example, ZEN & EROS, an artist portrait of Japanese painter Morio Matsui, will celebrate its world premiere at the festival in the presence of director Miwa Yoshimine.

The Nippon Connection Film Festival opens on June 2 with the German premiere of Taichi Kimura’s drama FUJIKO, which tells the inspiring story of a single mother’s journey toward autonomy. TOKYO TAXI, the festival’s closing film, also focuses on a strong female protagonist who stands her ground against the patriarchal society of postwar Japan. This moving drama is the 91st film by legendary director Yoji Yamada.

Many films will celebrate their premieres during the six-day festival with the filmmakers in attendance. The guest of honor is actress Anna Yamada who will receive the Nippon Rising Star Award. The award is presented by KYOCERA Document Solutions Deutschland. In addition, in cooperation with Wacom, the Nippon Animation Shorts Award will be presented for the first time to young creative talent in the Japanese animated film scene.

This year’s culture program is more extensive than ever. In addition to cooking classes and workshops on traditional activities such as calligraphy, sword fighting, and Japanese dance, offerings for manga and video game fans will also be available. And cross-genre concerts and performances showcasing the diversity of Japan’s music and arts scene round off the program. 

The two festival venues, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Produktionshaus NAXOS, invite you to immerse yourself in the world of Japan. On the festival grounds, visitors can explore the Japanese market – featuring craft and food stalls – or attend open-air events, all free of charge. 

The full festival program and tickets will be available on the festival website, NipponConnection.com, starting May 9, 2026. 

Partner hotels are offering rooms at special rates for festival attendees. 

 

More details about the festival program

Animated films outside the mainstream

With a selection of artistically sophisticated productions for adult audiences, Nippon Connection demonstrates that Japanese animated film extends far beyond family entertainment. The Last Blossom tells the melancholic story of a former criminal haunted by his past. Director Baku Kinoshita, known for his successful anime series “Odd Taxi”, is expected to attend the German premiere of his film in Frankfurt. After A New Dawn impressed audiences at the Berlinale competition with its extraordinary animation style, Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s directorial debut will have its first screening in Frankfurt at Nippon Connection. Cocoon by Yukimitsu Ina draws on a true story from the final days of World War II, when schoolgirls were forcibly conscripted during the Battle of Okinawa. The harrowing historical anime will celebrate its international premiere at the festival.

Films between reality and fiction

The thematic focus Shades of Reality – Between Truth and Fiction, supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, explores how films construct, interpret, or question reality. Two Seasons, Two Strangers initially presents the audience with a supposed reality that soon turns out to be fiction. Sho Miyake’s masterful drama won the Golden Leopard at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival. In Fiamma by Eiji Uchida, which is being shown as an international premiere, an assistant director works on the film adaptation of an autobiographical novel. When he discovers that the bestseller is based on a lie told by the author, he suddenly faces a moral dilemma. By contrast, SAI: disaster by Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase, which will have its German premiere at the festival, confronts viewers with a mysterious series of murders – while simultaneously casting doubt on their authenticity. The documentary Numakage Public Pool chronicles the final days of an outdoor pool scheduled for demolition, which had served as an important gathering place for all generations. To capture the various stages of mourning for this beloved place, director Shingo Ota transcends the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. 

Films featuring special guest Anna Yamada

To mark actress Anna Yamada’s receipt of the Nippon Rising Star Award, Nippon Connection is presenting three films from her diverse body of work. Anna Yamada describes the 2019 coming-of-age musical Little Love Song by Kojiro Hashimoto as an important milestone in her career. In Yuta Shimotsu’s horror film NEW GROUP, which is to celebrate its German premiere at the festival, the protagonist, played by Anna Yamada, must defend herself against a group of students who have gone crazy. Although she does not appear physically in Yasuhiro Aoki’s animated film ChaO, she lends her voice to the titular mermaid princess, enchanting both the protagonist Stephan and fans of creative anime. As part of her first visit to Germany, Anna Yamada will also discuss her work in a film talk and answer questions from the audience. 

Spotlight on documentaries

The numerous documentaries being screened as part of the 26th edition of the festival, with the kind support of the Dr. Marschner Stiftung, promise a wide range of insights into Japanese culture and society. Among them is the world premiere of the artist portrait ZEN & EROS by Miwa Yoshimine, which tells the life story of the unconventional painter Morio Matsui who moved to France as a young man to free himself from the creative constraints of his homeland. In The Ozu Diaries, Daniel Raim explores the professional and personal development of master director Yasujiro Ozu, featuring prominent filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In ARUKU, director Shiho Kataoka focuses on the legendary pilgrimage route on Shikoku and the people who travel to the island’s 88 temples in search of self-discovery. In an international panel discussion, filmmakers and experts will discuss how cinematic techniques and subjective directorial decisions shape our perception of reality in documentary film.

Workshops, concerts, and more

Nippon Connection’s extensive culture program, featuring over 80 events, has plenty to offer once again. In a two-day game design workshop, participants will learn how to develop their own short video games, while the artistically inclined can try their hand at digital manga drawing in workshops hosted by festival partner Wacom. In addition, Audio-Technica invites you to a new edition of Kino ohne Leinwand: This time, the music from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s concert film “Opus” will be played in pristine vinyl quality with an introduction by producer Eric Nyari. Director Jörg Buttgereit and Viennese film journalist Christian Fuchs will celebrate the 71st birthday of monster legend Godzilla in their talk show Ein superheisses Ding – Der Film Talk des Grauens. Of course, the popular Nippon Heimkino with Marcus Stiglegger and Kai Naumann will return this year, in which the two genre cinema experts will provide commentary on a surprise film from the 1970s. The program is complemented by many exciting events for kids and teenagers.

The musical lineup ranges from traditional to modern sounds: The trio featuring tabla virtuoso U-Zhaan and rappers Tamaki ROY and Chinza DOPENESS fuses Indian rhythms with Japanese hip-hop, whereas idol band Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da blends classic kawaii aesthetics with metal and pop music. In Midori HIRANO x Kaliber16, classical piano meets experimental electronic music and taiko virtuoso Shogo YOSHII and singer Marina HIRATA combine powerful drum sounds with traditional vocals.

 

About the Festival

The Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection is organized by the approximately 100-member, largely voluntary team of the non-profit association Nippon Connection e.V. It is under the patronage of Hessian State Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts Timon Gremmels, Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main Mike Josef, 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 with around 20,000 visitors in 2025.