FLOWER

Film gets 2-week screening in Japan starting on November 18 The official website for the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt anime began streaming a second teaser trailer for the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower compilation film on Thursday. (Note: The video on the official website is region-locked to Japan.) The film will have a simultaneous global release on November 18. In Japan, the film have a two-week limited screening in 15 theaters. The site also revealed a new visual. The first Anime NYC convention will host a premiere screening of the film on November 19. In addition, the convention will hold a Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt anime music concert led by composer Naruyoshi Kikuchi. The event will take place from November 17 to 19 at the Javits Center. A limited first edition Blu-ray Disc release of the film will be offered in the theaters screening the film in Japan starting on November 18. The release will include English audio and English subtitl

Jim Broadbent, Ewen Bremner, Lynda Baron, Rasmus Hardiker, more also star GKids announced the main English dub cast on Wednesday for Studio Ponoc and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Mary and The Witch's Flower (Mary to Majo no Hana) anime film. The BFG's Ruby Barnhill stars in the dub as the titular character Mary, and Kate Winslet (Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Mountain Between Us) plays school chairwoman Madam Mumblechook. Jim Broadbent, who co-starred with Winslet in Iris, plays Mumblechook's colleague Doctor Dee. Other cast members without specified roles include Ewen Bremner, Lynda Baron, Rasmus Hardiker, Teresa Gallagher, Morwenna Banks, and Louis Ashbourne Serkis. David Freedman and Lynda Freedman are writing the English-language adaptation, and Geoffrey Wexler is producing. Altitude Film Sales' Will Clarke is serving as executive producer. GKIDS announced earlier this month that it has acquired the film. Oricon previously reported that the English

Inaugural festival takes place in Hollywood in October The inaugural "Animation is Film" festival announced its initial competition film lineup on Friday. The films screening in competition include Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU's Lu over the wall anime film and Studio Ponoc and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Mary and The Witch's Flower anime film. The screening will mark the North American premiere of Mary and The Witch's Flower. The festival also stated that the screening would be the North American premiere of Lu over the wall, but the film has already screened at Dallas' AnimeFest convention and at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, and will also compete at Ottawa International Animation Festival later this month. The Animation is Film festival will announce the full lineup on September 20. Tickets will also go on sale on the same day. The inaugural festival will run from October 20-22 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood. The event will host 20 programs

Tsurugi Watanabe stars in film opening next spring A website and a Twitter account for a live-action adaptation of Shoko Hidaka's Does The Flower Blossom? boys-love manga opened on Friday. The film will premiere theatrically next spring. The movie stars Tsurugi Watanabe (pictured below) in his first film role as Yōichi Minagawa. Kaori Tanimoto is directing. Hidaka debuted the manga in 2009 and Gentosha published the series in five compiled volumes. Digital Manga Publishing licensed the first three volumes under its Juné imprint in 2012 and has thus far released the first two volumes. Digital Manga describes the story: Sakurai Kazuaki. At age 38, he's single, overworked, and starting to feel a bit miserable about his life. One day a young college guy at a train station bumps into Sakurai and wreks his magazine. Fate — or coincidence — has it, Minagawa happens to own the same magazine at home, and instead of apologizing for the damaged item, he invites Sakurai to his hou

Sugisaki wins Face of Asia award for up and coming Asian performers The Busan International Film Festival in South Korea awarded Japanese actress Hana Sugisaki with its Face of Asia award for her performance as the main character Mary in Studio Ponoc and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Mary and The Witch's Flower anime film. The award honors up-and-coming Asian actors and actresses. The film had its debut screening in South Korea on Friday during the film festival. The film festival will also screen the live-action Blade of the Immortal film, the live-action Let Me Eat Your Pancreas (Kimi no Suizō o Tabetai) film, and Akiyuki Simbo and Shunji Iwai's Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom? anime film. The festival has a focus on the works of Masaaki Yuasa, and will screen episodes from his The Tatami Galaxy and Ping Pong anime series, as well as his Night is Short, Walk On Girl and Lu over the wall films. Mary and The Witch's Flower opened in Japan on July 8 and