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Oshii's Sky Crawlers to Compete at Sitges
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers will be one of two Japanese movies, and the only animated feature, shown in the main program at Spain's Sitges International Film Festival 2008 next month. Film critics consider this festival to be the most important showcase in the world for fantasy and science fiction cinema. The other Japanese film selected is Takashi Miike's Crows Zero, a live-action prequel to Hiroshi Takahashi's 26-volume Crows manga.
The Sky Crawlers opened in Japan in August. It held its international public premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, and has also been screened at the Toronto Film Festival. Although it did not win any of Venice's main honors, it did pick up the Future Film Festival Digital Award there. Sony Pictures will distribute it in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America.
Sitges 2008 will run from October 2 to October 12 in the Spanish town of that name, southwest of Barcelona. In recent years, other anime films that competed for awards there have included Metropolis, Spirited Away, and Oshii's previous anime feature, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Many others have run in Sitges' Anima't section, whose 2008 participants have not been announced yet.
Images © Hiroshi Mori/The Sky Crawlers Project
