Hayao Miyazaki's first full-length film "Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro" will open the festival, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year with a new 4k version featuring updated visuals and sound.

Another Estonian premiere will be "Spy × Family Code: White" which comes on the heels of an anime series of the same name (director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi). The film will arrive in European cinemas in May.

Blockbusters and revered masterpieces such as Mamoru Hosoda's "Belle," Masaaki Tachibana's "Blue Thermal," Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron," Taichi Ishidate's Dilogy "Violet Evergarden" and many others are also in store.

Kenji Mizoguchi, who directed nearly a hundred movies between 1923-1956, represents the golden age of Japanese cinema, alongside such classics as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu whose pictures featured at last year's JAFF.

To mark 125 years since Mizoguchi's birth, two of his most famous films, "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum" (1938) and "The Life of Oharu" (1952) will be shown.

The festival will also celebrate the 70th anniversary of Godzilla (the first movie about the radioactive monster appeared in 1954) by screening the 1963 film "King Kong vs. Godzilla" by the director of the very first Godzilla movie Ishirō Honda and Tom Montgomery. The newest King Kong and Godzilla film "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" (2024) will also be shown.

The "Animatsioon+" special program will feature the best European anime and Oscar nomination "Robot Dreams" (director Pablo Berger), French sci-fi blockbuster "Mars Express" and Alexander Sokurov's experimental "Fairytale."

The "Punane vaip" subprogram will feature Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days" and Celine Song's love story "Past Lives." The Estonian premiere of Kauther Ben Hania's "Les Filles d'Olfa," which was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar will also take place.

The "Estonian tracks in Asia" special program will feature Marko Raad's "8 Views of Lake Biwa," inspired by Japanese culture, and the funny Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan road movie "Tšau, EU!" (director Ruslan Akun) filmed in Estonia last July. It features Estonian actors Toomas Tross and Haide Männamäe, Dave Benton, Mart Sander and others.

"Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus" is the final performance of the Japanese composer and musician before his death this spring – a summary and farewell, beautiful and sad, dignifying and inspiring. The film will only be shown on the evening of Thursday, May 2, with an introduction by Sten-Kristian Saluveer who knew Sakamoto.

The final ceremony of the festival will feature French-Mauritanian director Adberrahmane Sissako's film "Black Tea" which competed in this year's Berlin International Film Festival.

JAFF will also traditionally feature the J-Tsoon youth and subcultures festival held at the Tallinn Creative Hub April 20-21.

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