Two Anime Features Make Their Formal Premieres at the LA Femme Festival

Two Anime Features Make Their Formal Premieres at the LA Femme Festival

October 5th, 2018

Jerry Beck

La Femme International Film Festival and festival sponsor ELEVEN ARTS Anime Studio will hold a special screening of the award-winning anime feature Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, Friday, October 12th at 6PM, and a competition screening of Liz and the Blue Bird, Sunday, October 14th at 12PM. Both screenings will be at the Regal Theater Stadium 14 at LA Live. Founded in 2005, the LA Femme International Film Festival is a premier festival that focuses on platforming women filmmakers and works “by women, for everyone.”

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is the directorial debut of renowned screenwriter Mari Okada. The film dives into the dilemmas of motherhood, adolescence, femininity, and leadership. Okada wraps all these poignant themes into a sweeping epic with well-developed characters, emotional gravitas, stunning visuals, and an exhilarating score by composer Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell). The film, hot off its initial February release, quickly made its way across the globe to premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival, where it captivated audiences. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms also won the Best Animated Film Award at Shanghai International Film Festival.

An Official Selection of the festival, Liz and the Blue Bird is a coming-of-age story from Naoko Yamada, the director of A Silent Voice. ELEVEN ARTS Anime Studio has set November 9th, 2018, as the theatrical release for the film. The film made its premiere at Anime Expo in the US and will screen with the original Japanese dialogue and English subtitles.

“We could not be prouder to have these two incredibly powerful titles screen at the LA Femme. Director Mari Okada and director Naoko Yamada are incredible women whose work continues to shape the anime industry. We are honored to be bringing the films to this festival and to the broader North American audience,” says Ko Mori, President and CEO of ELEVEN ARTS Anime Studio.

ELEVEN ARTS Anime Studio is a Los Angeles-based distribution company known for bringing high-quality Japanese anime to North America. ELEVEN ARTS’ anime titles include Digimon Adventure Tri.Chapter 1: Reunion, the Evangelion franchise, The Last: Naruto the Movie, Sailor Moon R: The Movie, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro and A Silent Voice.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms screens on Friday, October 12th at 6PM and Liz and the Blue Bird screens on Sunday, October 14th at 12PM, at the Regal Theater Stadium 14 at LA Live, 1000 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles.

Tickets can be purchased at: http://www.lafemme.org/tickets/

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.