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Sydney Film Festival to host Australian Premiere of The Tale of Princess Kaguya

The Sydney Film Festival is a event held in June each year where for 12 days a slate of local and international films are screened at theaters and cinemas in the Sydney CBD. The event was officially inaugurated in 1954 and it wasn't until 2008 that the festival started hosting a international film competition as part of the festival, known as the Official Competition.

This year SFF will be hosting three Studio Ghibli films as part of its screenings as follows;

• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (further information)
• Sat 14th June 4:10pm at The State Theatre (49 Market St, Sydney NSW).
• Sat 15th June 2:20pm at Event Cinemas George St (525 George St, Sydney, NSW).
• Grave of the Fireflies (further information)
• Sun 8th June 12:30pm at Dendy Opera Quays (2 East Circular Quay, Sydney, NSW)
• My Neighbour Totoro (further information)
• Sat 14th June 10:30am at The Art Gallery of NSW (Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney, NSW).

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The movie is based on the famous Japanese folktale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), which centers on a princess named Kaguya who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. The film was directed at Studio Ghibli by co-founder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbours the Yamadas) from a screenplay he wrote in colloboration with Riko Sakaguchi. Animation director Kenichi Konishi (Tokyo Godfathers) was also responsible for the character designs and the music was composed by Joe Hisaishi. The film won the Animation Film Award at the 68th Mainichi Film Awards.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya premiered in Japan in November 2013 and sold over 222,822 tickets in 452 cinemas on its opening weekend earning 284,252,550 yen (approxmiately $2.98 million AUD). As of the beginning of February 2014 the film has made a total of 2,313,602,733 yen (about $24,320 million AUD) and in March the distribution company GKIDS announced that they would release The Tale of the Princess Kaguya in North America later in the year.