Okinawa International Movie Festival Lineup Announced!

The lineup for the 6th Okinawa International Movie Festival (OIMF) was announced today and it's a real mixed bag of world cinema treats. The festival will take place from March 20th until March 24th on Okinawa's main island of Naha and include loads of events involving film, music and comedy for the people of Okianwa and beyond to enjoy.

The competition section of the festival is split into two main categories, 'Laugh' and 'Peace', covering films with the theme of 'making people laugh' and 'making people feel happy after viewing' respectively. Danish superhero comedy Antboy will be playing for the first time in Asia and Korean baseball gorilla oddity Mr. Go will make it's Japanese premier. Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats is my pick of the Japanese entries. I could say it's because of the unique co-production between Japan and several European distribution companies, or even because it's a chance to see female comedian Oshima Miyuki play a middle-aged man in her film debut but really it's because I think I might be in it, having spent the day as a poorly positioned extra on the set last year.

The International Special Screenings The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Grudge Match might not be very exciting to the rest of the world but both films have yet to be released here in Japan and they should play well to the broad audience who usually attend. The festival will also host a special screening of Gravity, played at night on the beach on the world's largest mobile outdoor screen, surely an amazing spectacle.
Check out the full line-up below.

Special Invitation
Oh! Father - Japan - Michihito Fujii
Grudge Match - USA - Peter Segal
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - USA Ben Stiller

Competition
Jurors: Sadao Nakajima, Gary Tang, Yoko Narahashi, Etsuko Higa, LiLiCo

Laugh Category
Antboy - Denmark - Ask Hasselbalch
One Third - Japan - Hiroshi Shinagawa
Jackass Presents: Bad Grampa - USA - Jeff Tremaine
Ultrafast! Sankinkotai - Japan - Katsuhide Motoki
Fukrey - India - Mrigdeep Singh Lamba

Peace Category
Miss Granny - Korea -Dong-hyuk Hwang
The Round Table - Japan - Isao Yukisada
Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats - Fujita Yosuke
Bay Blues, 25 years and 364 days - Japan - Tomohiro Takayama
Mr. GO - Korea - Yong-hwa Kim
F*ck you, Goethe- Germany - Bora Dagtekin

TV Director's Movie
A new category of collaborations between Yoshimoto Kogyo and and Japanese TV stations aimed at encouraging more ambitious film production by TV networks.

Furiko - Norihiko Takenaga
The Love Session - Itaya Eiji
Slight Fever of 100°C ~Island Breeze of Love~ - Okamoto Koichi
NMB48 Geinin! The Movie Returns - Uchida Hidemi
Pirameki's Children Story - Ota Yu