Cherry and Virgin is an original feature directed by Masanao Kawajiri that has won multiple awards at Fantasia and is now booked into the Animation is Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival animation section. It is scheduled to open in theaters in 2027.
Cherry and Virgin arrived on the festival circuit as an original feature from director Masanao Kawajiri, with its world premiere at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. The film follows two inexperienced artists who meet on a dating app, and it combines rotoscoped performances with manga panel-style illustrations to depict their sexual anxieties. Kawajiri has described a lengthy crowdfunded development that the pandemic extended.
Fantasia gave the film its first awards. It won Special Mention of the Jury in the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation, then took the Audience Award and the Gold Prize in the feature animation category at the same festival. Those wins sit alongside the Special Jury Prize in the Satoshi Kon Competition.
After Montreal, the film was routed forward rather than treated as a finished release. Tokyo International Film Festival added it to the Animation Section of its 39th edition, which runs October 26 to November 4 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area. The Animation is Film Festival then added it to competition at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, running October 16 to 19, alongside a special screening of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Both festival placements happen before the film opens in 2027, so the circuit is functioning as a lead-in to the theatrical release.
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Animation is Film announced on Tuesday that it will screen Masanao Kawajiri's Cherry and Virgin and Shingo Natsume and Madhouse's ghost - end of night in competition at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood on October 16-19. The festival also plans a special screening of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Cherry and Virgin opens in 2027; ghost - end of night opens in Japan on February 11, 2027.
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival will screen Masanao Kawajiri's Cherry and Virgin, Shingo Natsume and Madhouse's ghost - end of night, Atsushi Nishigori's Grotesqqque, and NOTHING NEW and Kohei Kadowaki's We Are Aliens in its Animation Section. The festival runs October 26 to November 4 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area. A separate Women Directors section includes three anime films.
Director Kawajiri Yoshiyuki's feature film Cherry and Virgin won the Audience Award and the Gold Prize in the feature animation category at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. The film, a rotoscope love story about an erotic manga artist and a fujoshi, also recently took the Special Jury Prize in the Satoshi Kon Competition.
Masanao Kawajiri's feature debut 'Cherry and Virgin' premiered at Fantasia Festival. The film follows two inexperienced artists who meet on a dating app, using rotoscoped performances and manga panel-style illustrations to depict their sexual anxieties. Kawajiri discussed the film's lengthy crowdfunded development, which was extended by the pandemic.
Masanao Kawajiri's original film Cherry and Virgin won Special Mention of the Jury in the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival. The film had its world premiere at the festival and is scheduled to open in 2027. The award section is named after the late director Satoshi Kon.
The 30th annual Fantasia International Film Festival will host the world premiere of the Cherry and Virgin film, the North American premiere of the Sekiro: No Defeat anime, and international premieres of the live-action WIND BREAKER film and The Origin of Ultraman documentary. The festival runs July 16-August 2 in Montreal.