Anime, Mamoru Hosoda, West Coast Premiere

Belle

Mamoru Hosoda
Japan · 2021 · 121 min
Japanese with English Subtitles

From the celebrated Oscar®-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu, creator of Mirai, Wolf Children, Summer Wars, and more, comes a fantastical, beautiful and contemporary thematic story of one girl’s growth in the age of social media. Suzu is a 17-year-old high school student living in a rural village with her father. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. One day, she enters “U,” a virtual world of 5 billion members on the Internet. There, she is not Suzu anymore but Belle, a world-famous singer. She soon meets with a mysterious creature. Together, they embark on a journey of adventures, challenges and love, in their quest to become who they truly are. A GKIDS release. (GKIDS)

Anime, Beijing 2019, Mamoru Hosoda

The Boy and the Beast

Mamoru Hosoda

The latest film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children): When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s takin in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice.
Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely pair will be put to the ultimate test – a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.

Courtesy of Funimation Entertainment

Anime, Beijing 2019, Mamoru Hosoda

Mirai

Mamoru Hosoda
Japan · 2018
In Japanese

The latest from acclaimed director Mamoru Hosoda – whose The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children and Boy and the Beast are also playing the festival. Mirai is a daringly original story of love passed down through generations and brings together two of Hosoda’s most resonant themes: the importance of family and the ability to pass through time. When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family. As his mother returns to work and his father struggles to Run the household, Kun becomes increasingly jealous of baby Mirai… until one day he storms off into the garden, where he encounters strange guests from the past and future – including his sister Mirai, as a teenager. Together, Kun and teenage Mirai go on a journey through time and space, uncovering their family’s incredible story. But why did Mirai come from the future?

An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and the epic capstone of director Mamoru Hosoda’s career, Mirai is a sumptuous, magical, and emotionally soaring adventure about the ties that bring families together and make us who we are.

A GKIDS release

Anime, Mamoru Hosoda

The Boy and the Beast

Introduction by Mamoru Hosoda

Courtesy of Funimation Entertainment

Anime, Mamoru Hosoda

Wolf Children

Mamoru Hosoda
Japan · 2012 · 117 min
In Japanese with English subtitles · Recommended for ages 8 and up

Hana was a student before she was a mother. She was bright and pretty, and her future held endless possibilities. Then she met a man, who turned out to be a wolf, and together they built a family. Hana loved her mate fiercely, but fate took him from her, leaving her alone with two unusual kids she didn’t know how to raise. Frightened of being discovered, Hana and her wolf children fled to the countryside to build a new life. Raising her little wild things was an adventure. It left Hanna bruised, scratched, exhausted, and joyously overwhelmed as her pups grew stronger and wandered further every day. This is a mother’s journey. Teach your children to chase their dreams – and smile through the tears as they disappear into the world in search of who they will become. Hana wasn’t always a mother, but it was always what she was meant to be.

Courtesy of Funimation Entertainment

Anime, Mamoru Hosoda

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Mamoru Hosoda
Japan · 2006 · 99 min
In Japanese with English Subtitles · Recommended for ages 8 and up

After waking up late, flunking her pop quiz, embarrassing herself on numerous occasions, and starting a fire in her home economics class, high school student Makoto Konno figures she’s just having one of those days. Just when she thinks she’s made it through, the brakes on her bike malfunction putting her on a collision course with a speeding train. The life-ending accident would have been the perfect end to the worst day ever, but the strangest thing happens – she leaps backwards in time.

After unlocking her new ability, Makoto does what any teenager would do. She re-takes tests, corrects embarrassing situations, and sleeps in as late as she wants, never thinking that her carefree time travelling could have a negative effect on the people she cares about. By the time she realizes the damage she’s done, she’ll have to race against time to set things right.

Courtesy of Funimation Entertainment

Anime, Mamoru Hosoda

Summer Wars

Mamoru Hosoda

Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, bad with girls, and spends most of his time hanging out in the all-powerful online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiancé at her family reunion. Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI intent on using the virtual world of OZ to destroy the real world. As Armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit in this “near perfect blend of social satire and science fiction.”

Courtesy of Funimation Entertainment