BERLINALE WATCH

Written and directed by anime auteur Makoto Shinkai, this epic adventure takes us across the length and breadth of Japan, venturing outside metropolitan hubs to seek doors of disaster in the abandoned infrastructures of depopulated rural areas

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Country: Japan

Producer: Genki Kawamura

World Sales: Toho

Displaying all the sensitivity and wicked humour of his previous works, Dustin Guy Defa’s new film is a shrewd study of the pitiless condition known as adulthood. After growing up in a family unit that constitutes your whole world, with its particular set of habits and a shared language, crossing the border into the realm of adults can feel disempowering, even terrifying. A sense of loss may be difficult to ever really overcome

Director: Dustin Guy Defa

Country: USA

Producers: Michael Cera, Hannah Dweck, Ted Schaefer, Allison Rose Carter, Jon Read, Julia Thompson

ENCOUNTERS THE ADULTS (ENGLISH)

World Sales: Universal Pictures Content Group

Jennifer Reeder’s new feature-length film is a dark, queer-feminist genre mix of body horror, gore and mystery. As in her earlier works, she looks at the world predominantly through the eyes of her young protagonists who, armed with biting humour and an unbroken sense of justice, manage to wrest moments of light-heartedness and solidarity from the twisted world of adults.

Director: Jennifer Reeder

Country: USA / France

Producers: Derek Bishé, Gregory Chambet

World Sales: WTFilms