Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF), announced its next year’s festival dates to be March 15 - 20, and has started accepting entries for its key event of film competition from July 1. The event will take place in the city of Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. To enter the film competition, entries must be submitted between midnight (JST) on July 1 and midnight (JST) on November 30. The work must be 40 minutes or longer, including end credits, and can utilize any method of animation, but the production must have been completed in or after the year 2023.
NIAFF’s Program Director Tadashi Sudo gave a complete description of what we will find at the event: “We will have our third edition next year. We make a call out for the films that we have not yet seen or wish to see again on a big screen. “The number of entries and visitors this year for our second edition greatly exceeded those of the first, thanks to the support and cooperation of many people who shared our goal of ‘bringing animation to as many people as possible.’ NIAFF continues to grow bigger. If you come to Niigata, you will be able to find out what’s new in the world of animation! That’s the kind of film festival we want to be," explained.
If shortlisted for the Feature Film Competition, the work will be screened during NIAFF and the director of the film will be invited as a guest. All shortlisted films are evaluated for awards by high-profile juries such as Nora Twomey ("The Breadwinner") and Mamoru Oshii ("Ghost in the Shell") who served as jury heads this year and last year respectively. The juries for next year are to be announced at a later date.