The official website of Makoto Shinkai’s latest anime film Suzume No Tojimari announced on Jan 23, 2023, that it has been selected to screen under the competition section at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, which will take place from Feb 6-26, 2023.

This will make Suzume No Tojimari the first anime film to enter the competition category of the festival in 21 years since Spirited Away.

A new key visual was revealed by the site to commemorate the announcement.

Director Makoto Shinkai along with Nanoka Hara, the voice cast of Suzume, and producer Genki Kawamura will attend the red carpet and screening of the film at Berlin International Festival.

Here is what Shinkai and Nanoka Hara have to say about the big announcement.

Makoto Shinakai:

“Suzume no Tojimari” is based on a huge event that happened in Japan 12 years ago.
How will this film be perceived by overseas audiences, what will be conveyed, what will not be conveyed, and what can be shared? How our creations look from the outside. I think that I was given a good opportunity to confirm it with my own ears and eyes. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the talent and efforts of the staff who have guided me to this point, and to all of you who have supported me.

Nanoka Hara:

It’s my first time to go abroad, and it’s a great honor to be able to go to the historic Berlin International Film Festival with the Suzume No Tojimari Team. Once again, I am happy to be involved in the work “Suzume no Tojimari”. I am really looking forward to hearing the voices of people from all over the world directly at the film festival. I hope “Suzume no Tojimari” will be loved all over the world!

The Berlin International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of the “Big Three” alongside the Venice Film Festival in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival in France. Tens of thousands of visitors attend each year.

The major awards, called the Golden Bear and Silver Bears, are decided on by the international jury, chaired by an internationally recognisable cinema personality.

Spirited Away had won the Golden Bear award in the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival, along with British–Irish film Bloody Sunday.

Suzume no Tojimari released in Japan on Nov 11, 2022, and has earned 12.8 billion yen, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan.

The movie goers from Dec 24 were gifted a new spin-off novel written by Makoto Shinkai. The novel will be focusing on Suzume’s aunt Tamaki and will be named Suzume no Tojimari ~Tamaki-san no Monogatari~.

Crunchyroll had earlier revealed the world-wide release dates of the movie. It will release in United States, Canada and United Kingdom on April 14, 2023.

The distribution of the movie in North America will be handled by Crunchyroll alone whereas Sony & Crunchyroll will handle the distribution of the movie together in Latin and South America, Australia, New Zealand, The Middle East, Africa and certain countries of Europe.

Wild Bunch International and Eurozoom will release the movie in French and German speaking Europe.

Shinkai directed and wrote the screenplay for Suzume no Tojimari. He’s also the author of the original story.

Other staff members of the movie include:

• Character design: Masayoshi Tanaka
• Animation director: Kenichi Tsuchiya
• Art director: Takumi Tanji
• Studio: CoMix Wave Film
• Production producer: STORY inc.
• Distribution: Toho Animation

Nanoha Hara is voicing the titular character Suzume in the movie and Hokuto Matsumura will voice the other main character Souta Munakata.

Other cast of the film includes:

• Eri Fukatsu as Tamaki Iwato, Suzume’s aunt
• Matsumoto Hakuō II as Hitsujirō Munakata, Sota’s grandfather
• Shōta Sometani as Minoru Okabe, Tamaki’s colleague
• Sairi Itō as Rumi Ninomiya, Single mother raising twins, who Suzume encounters in Kobe
• Kotone Hanase as Chika Amabe, a lively girl of the same age as Suzume, whom she meets in Ehime
• Kana Hanazawa as Tsubame Iwato, Suzume’s mother
• Ryunosuke Kamiki as Tomoya Serizawa, a friend of Souta

RADWIMPS and Kazuma Jinnouchi composed the music for film, with Tik tok famed Toaka performing the theme song, “Suzume”.

Suzume No Tojimari film’s soundtrack comprises of two theme songs, “Kanata Haruka” and “Suzume,” twenty five additional songs and a brand new song created during the film’s production by Yojiro Noda, called “Tamaki”. RADWIMPS also released the official music video for KANATA HALUKA.

The officially announced story of Suzume no Tojimari is described as:

Suzume is a 17-year-old, who lives in a quiet town in Kyushu. One day, she meets a traveling young man who is looking for a “door.” Suzume decides to follow him and discovers an old door in the ruins in the mountains. As if drawn by something, Suzume reaches out for the door… What follows is Suzume’s liberation and growth as she closes the “doors” that cause misfortune in abandoned places around Japan.

Source: Official Website