Film & TV

Open-air evening film festival in Tokyo returns after hiatus due to coronavirus

Courtesy of Shinjuku Convention & Visitors Bureau
The venue for the Shinjuku Park Cinema Festival in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Chuo Park is seen in 2017.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:02 JST, October 14, 2022

An open-air film festival that takes place in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, will go on for the first time since 2019.

The Shinjuku Park Cinema Festival will take place in Shinjuku Chuo Park on Oct. 19-21.

The annual outdoor event was launched by Shinjuku Convention & Visitors Bureau and other entities in 2017 for people to enjoy watching films while feeling the evening breeze of autumn.

The festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Featured works in this year’s festival are three Japanese films with love as their theme: “Hanataba mitaina Koi o shita” (“We Made a Beautiful Bouquet”) directed by Nobuhiro Doi on Oct. 19; “Ai ga nanda” (“Just Only Love”) directed by Rikiya Imaizumi on Oct. 20; and “Eiga: Yozora wa itsudemo Saiko-mitsudo no Aoiro da” (“The Tokyo Night Sky is Always the Densest Shade of Blue”) directed by Yuya Ishii on Oct. 21.

The films start at 6 p.m. Admission is free.

Food trucks will sell snacks, craft beer and other foods and beverages. For the audience, 140 chairs will be provided plus 60 seats at tables. Rental picnic mats will be available, too.

“This is a rare opportunity to appreciate film against the backdrop of skyscrapers at night,” a public relations official said.