The Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced that the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) will host a special program titled ANIME NEXT 100 during the festival. The program will celebrate 100 years of Japanese animation since 1917.

The program will screen short films and full-length films. The short films are from the National Film Center's collection of classic animated works, which are available streaming online with English subtitles this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the oldest known Japanese animated short films. Annecy's screening will include Noburo Ofuji's "Haru no Uta" ("Spring Song," 1931), Yasuji Murata's "Manga Kobutori" ("The Lump," 1929), Ikuo Oishi's "Ponsuke no Haru" ("Spring Comes to Ponsuke," 1934), Shigeji Ogino's "Propagate" (1935), Kenzo Masaoka's "Manga Shin Sarukanigassen" ("Monkey and Crabs," 1939), and Mitsuyo Seo's "Arichan" ("Arichan the Ant," 1941). The program's opener will be animator Franck Dion's animated short based on late director Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of Senses film.

The full-length films screening in the program include Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988), Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue (1997), and Takeshi Shirato and Yoshinobu Nishizaki's Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection (2009).

During the festival's MIFA (Marche international du film d'animation) animation market on June 14, the ANIME NEXT 100 program will host presentations with themes of heritage, training, and the industry's future.

Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation's A Silent Voice ( Koe no Katachi ), Sunao Katabuchi and MAPPA's In This Corner of the World ( Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni ), and Masaaki Yuasa and Science Saru's Lu over the wall ( Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta ) will screen in competition at this year's Annecy.

Ancien and the Magic Tablet ( Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari ) from Kenji Kamiyama and Signal.MD, as well as Rudolf the Black Cat ( Rudolf to Ippaiattena ) from Kunihiko Yuyama, Motonori Sakakibara, and OLM, will screen out of competition. The festival will also host screenings of Hiroyuki Seshita and Polygon Pictures' Blame! , Ankama and Studio 4°C's French/Japanese animated film Mutafukaz , and the first footage of the new Mazinger Z film. Sawako Kabuki's Natsu no gero wa huyu no sakana short film is in the graduation films competition.

In addition, animation studio CGCG Studio HD will offer its nine-minute anime short "Sprin' Pan Mae e Susumou!" ("Sprin' Pan Let's go forward!") in this year's MIFA (Marche international du film d'animation) animation market. The market is run by and concurrently with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival. This year, it runs from June 12-17 at the French community of the same name.

Source: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)