In January of 2015, Gateway Film Center kicked off a four-month celebration of anime with Ghibli at GFC. The program was so successful they’ve brought it back – with a little tweaking.

Expanding the lineup beyond just the Ghibli’s canon and compressing the schedule to January and February, GFC programmers hope to continue to please their anime audience.

“Ghibli at GFC was a smash hit,” says Jason Tostevin, Gateway’s VP of Communications and Marketing. “People travelled in from around the country to see their favorite Ghibli movie on the big screen. It had such an enthusiastic reception, we knew we had to bring it back for people to see again, or for the first time.”

Boasting beloved genre work from anime master Hayao Miyazaki as well as an array of new and classic animation, the 2017 program leads to the Ohio premier of Studio Ghibli’s latest, the dialog-free festival darling The Red Turtle. Tostevin thinks Gateway is the ideal venue for the premier and the series.

“We’ve always been a place where, by design, you can see the movies you love, feel genuinely welcome, and then have an adventure and discover something else you might not know you’d love,” he says. “It’s safe to have a spirit of discovery here. We encourage it. And we’ve built a reputation for playing movies that are worth watching, whether they’ve had that big national advertising budget or not. So anime is a perfect fit for us. People who already love it get to see it, and people who love movies have a chance to experience anime for maybe the first time.”

ANIME AT GFC full lineup:

Spirited Away opens January 1

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind opens January 6

Castle in the Sky opens January 9

Grave of the Fireflies opens January 10

One Piece of Gold opens January 10

My Neighbor Totoro opens January 12

Only Yesterday opens January 16

My Neighbor the Yamadas opens January 18

Sailor Moon opens Januar 19 (all seats $15)

Howl’s Moving Castle opens January 19

The Secret World of Arrietty opens January 23

When Marnie Was There opens January 25

Ponyo opens January 27

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions opens January 27

Tales from Earthsea opens January 30

The Cat Returns opens January 31

Whisper of the Heart opens February 1

Kiki’s Delivery Service opens February 2

Porco Rosso opens February 6

From Up on Poppy Hill opens February 7

Pom Poko opens February 8

Ocean Waves opens February 9

The Wind Rises opens February 12

Princess Mononoke opens February 14

The Tale of Princess Kaguya opens February 22

The Red Turtle opens February 23

“What we’re really excited about here is, we’re presenting films to anime fans who wouldn’t get to see these movies in a theater,” Tostevin says. “And we’re also giving the city a chance to explore and discover anime.”

Showtimes, tickets and more information are online at GatewayFilmCenter.org.

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