Shimokitazawa Film Festival

Shimokita gets some added cinematic flavour during the sixth edition of this weekend celebration, which aims to provide a showcase for up-and-coming domestic directors. This year's programme is split up into five sections, with the competition category judged by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri of My Man (2014) fame. Films vying for the grand prize include Tony Mullen's robot dog story Electric Town and 23-year-old Momoko Fukuda's Goodbye Mother, while Shuichi Okita's popular short Mame Daifuku Monogatari will be shown out of competition, complete with a talk with the director and actors. If you're looking to discover fresh filmmakers and don't mind the lack of subtitles, this one should be well worth checking out.