The staff of Lonely Castle In The Mirror announced on their official website on April 28, 2023, that the anime film has been selected to compete in Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2023 under feature film category.

The festival will be held in France on June 11-17, 2023.

Lonely Castle In The Mirror is not the first film of director Keiichi Hara to be entering the festival. His previous film Colourful had won Audience Award and Special Distinction prize at the 2011 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Miss Hokusai, another film by the director, had also received Jury Award at the 39th edition of the festival. So naturally, he is expecting a big win for Lonely Castle In The Mirror as well.

Goodbye, Don Glees!, directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, and The House of the Lost on the Cape, directed by Shinya Kawatsura, were selected to screen under the Feature Films category of the competition last year.

Lonely Castle In The Mirror premiered in Japan on Dec 23, 2022. A-1 Pictures was in charge of the film’s animation. 

Cast members include:

• Sakura Kiryu as Aki
• Takumi Kitamura as Rion
• Aoi Miyazaki as Kitajima-sensei
• Rihito Itagaki as Subaru
• Naho Yokomizo as Fūka
• Minami Takayama
• Yuki Kaji as Ureshino
• Kumiko Aso as Kokoro’s mother
• Yuki Kaji as Ureshino
• Mana Ashida as Okami-sama
• Shingo Fujimori as Ida-sensei
•  Karen Takizawa as School nurse

It was previously announced that 15-year old voice actress Ami Touma has been cast to voice the protagonist Kokoro. 

The staff involved in Lonely Castle In The Mirror includes:

• Director: Keiichi Hara
• Screenplay: Miho Maruo
• Music: Harumi Fuuki
• Character Design: Keigo Sasaki
• Chief Animation Director: Keigo Sasaki
• Lonely Castle Design: Ilya Kuvshinov
• Visual Concept: Ilya Kuvshinov

Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a Japanese novel written by Mizuki Tsujimura, and published by Poplar Publishing in May 2017. A manga adaptation illustrated by Tomo Taketomi was serialized in Shueisha’s seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from June 2019 to February 2022, with its chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became an annual event in 1998. It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the International Animated Film Association.

The festival is a competition between animated films of various techniques (traditional, cut-outs, claymation, 3DCG, etc.) classified in various categories:

• Feature films
• Short films
• Films produced for television and advertising
• Student films
• Films made for the internet (since 2002)
• Feature films contrechamp in competition (since 2007)

Source: Official Website