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Stranger, 20th Century Boys at Italy's Future Film Fest

Masahiro Ando and Bones' Sword of the Stranger samurai anime film and Yukihiko Tsutsumi's first live-action 20th Century Boys suspense film (pictured below) are competing in Italy's Future Film Festival, which will run from January 27 to February 1. Also competing is Paco and the Magical Book, the surreal live-action fantasy film that reunites director Tetsuya Nakashima, actress Anna Tsuchiya, and other key players from the Kamikaze Girls film. The 11-year-old festival in the city of Balogna puts its spotlight on animated and live-action special effects films from around the world. Bandai Entertainment will run Sword of the Stranger in over 360 American theaters on February 5, and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival will hold the American premiere of 20th Century Boys later this month.

Outside the main competition, the festival will screen Shinji Aramaki's Appleseed: Ex Machina sequel, Studio 4°C's Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond film anthologies, Junji Shimizu's One Piece: Episode of Chopper + Fuyu ni Saku, Kiseki no Sakura, Minoru Kawasaki's live-action Pussy Soup - Neko Rahmen film, Shinji Takagi's SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next, and Angel on the Run — the tentative English title for Yoshinobu Yamakawa's film version of Shinichi Hiromoto's Hells Angels manga. The festival's Midnight Madness program will also show Yoshihiro Nishimura's splatter horror film Tokyo Gore Police and Frogman's Eagle Talon The Movie - The Chancellor Only Lives Twice. A special film retrospective will pay tribute to the late pioneer of Japanese horror films, Nobuo Nakagawa.

Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second film won the animation grand prize at last year's festival, while Michael Arias earned a Special Mention award for his film adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto's Tekkonkinkreet manga.

Image © BONES/Stranger Production Committee
© 1999 Naoki Urasawa Studio Nuts/Shogakukan © 2008 20th Century Boys