The 26th Nippon Connection Film Festival opens Its Doors!

Six days of Japanese cinema, culture, and cuisine starting June 2 at 13 locations across Frankfurt am Main

On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, the 26th Nippon Connection Film Festival will celebrate its opening! For six days, across 13 locations across Frankfurt am Main, the world’s largest festival for Japanese cinema will present its most extensive edition to date – featuring 145 short and feature-length films, 87 cultural events, and around 200 attending filmmakers and artists. At the two festival centers Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Produktionshaus NAXOS, visitors can immerse themselves in all things Japanese. On the festival grounds, visitors can explore the Japanese market with its arts and crafts and food stalls or attend open-air events free of admission. The full program and tickets are available at NipponConnection.com. 

The festival will open on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm with the German premiere of Fujiko in the presence of director Taichi Kimura. This captivating tragicomedy about a single mother struggling to find her place in life in the patriarchal Japanese society of the 1970s and 80s won the Golden Mulberry Audience Award at the Far East Film Festival in Udine just a few weeks ago. Hessian state secretary Christoph Degen and Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main Mike Josef will welcome the audience at the opening ceremony. At naxos.Kino, the festival will begin with the German premiere of Numakage Public Pool on June 2 at 7:30 p.m. Director Shingo Ota and producer Kyoko Takanaka will personally present their documentary film about the closing of a beloved public outdoor pool.

A free supporting program will be offered at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm on the opening night from 5 p.m. Visitors can enjoy traditional Ryukyu dance from Okinawa, challenge a real sumo wrestler, or play retro video games on authentic CRT televisions. The evening ends with FloFilz’s presentation of his new album HAGAKI in a live set – an auditory travel journal to Japan that combines jazz and beats with Japanese musical traditions.

The following festival days will also offer numerous highlights: In cooperation with exf f. – tage des experimentellen films frankfurt, Nippon Connection will present two short film programs featuring rarely screened Japanese experimental films on analog film prints at Pupille Kino on Wednesday, June 3 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Fans of Japanese animated films can look forward to the international premiere of Wataru Takahashi’s The Obsessed. The unconventional anime musical will screen at Cinéma Arthouse Kino on June 4 at 3:45 p.m. as well as at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm on June 7 at 11:30 a.m.

This year’s festival presents an extensive program with current Japanese documentaries. For example, on June 5 at 7:15 p.m., ZEN & EROS will have its world premiere at naxos.Kino in the presence of director Miwa Yoshimine. Yoshimine shot the portrait film of painter Morio Matsui by accompanying him with a camera over a 15-year period prior to his death in 2022. In addition to the premiere, the film will be screened again on June 6 at 2:00 p.m. at Mal Seh’n Kino. Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s documentary Dear Tomorrow addresses a highly relevant topic in Germany today. Through its two protagonists, the film lays bare how loneliness is becoming an ever increasing problem in society. Its German premiere takes place on June 4 at 10:00 p.m. at naxos.Kino and it will be screened again on June 6 at 10:45 p.m. at Mal Seh’n Kino.

Outside the cinema auditoriums, guests can experience all facets of Japanese culture in various events within the Nippon Culture section. A wide range of workshops on topics such as sumo wrestling, game design, and subtitling Japanese films are on offer in addition to various lectures and panel discussions. The trio comprising tabla player U-zhaan and rappers Tamaki Roy and Chinza Dopeness will combine traditional Indian rhythms with Japanese hip-hop in a concert on June 3 at 8:00 p.m. at the Internationales Theater Frankfurt. On June 5 at 5:00 p.m., actor Tomoya Kawamura presents a modern mask performance, also at the Internationales Theater Frankfurt. In Letters From Chiran, he tells a vivid story about the fate of young kamikaze pilots during World War II. On June 4 at 4:00 p.m., Tony Clark performs on the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, at the Theater Die Käs and invites you to participate in a musical meditation. On June 5 at 8:30 p.m., cult director Jörg Buttgereit and film journalist Christian Fuchs bring their acclaimed talk show EIN SUPERHEISSES DING – Der Film-Talk des Grauens to Frankfurt for the first time. Rounding off the program, musician Kanako Horiuchi presents traditional music from Japan’s southernmost prefecture Okinawa on June 6 at 8:00 p.m.

Event locations

Festival centers: Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Produktionshaus NAXOS.
Additional event locations in Frankfurt am Main: Eldorado Arthouse Kino, Cinéma Arthouse Kino, Kino des DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Mal Seh’n Kino, Pupille – Kino in der Uni, Internationales Theater Frankfurt, Theater Die Käs, Saalbau Bornheim, Dr. Arthur Pfungst-Stiftung, NAXOS 2. OG and SCHAUT! Ausstellungsraum.

About the festival

The Japanese film festival Nippon Connection is organized by the non-profit association Nippon Connection e.V. and its team of around 100 members, most of whom working on a voluntary basis. The festival is held under the patronage of Timon Gremmels, Hessian Minister for Science and Research, Arts and Culture, Mike Josef, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main, and the Consulate General of Japan in Frankfurt am Main. Since its founding in 2000, the festival has become the world’s largest platform for Japanese film and the most attended film festival in the state of Hesse, with around 20,000 visitors in 2025. A fundraising campaign to support the festival is running on the online platform betterplace.org.