【Film festival report】 Late-night excitement at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025! The new anime film "Nightmare Bugs" was screened to thunderous applause!
- zelicofilm
- Jul 21
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 22
The new horror anime film "Nightmare Bugs" was selected for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025, the world's highest level animation film festival, and was screened on June 13th.
Despite being a screening at 11pm as part of the Midnight Specials category, nearly a thousand spectators gathered and general director Osamu Fukutani took to the stage. After the screening, the film was met with applause and was a great success. This report will introduce the festival.
"Nightmare Bugs" (2025) is a new horror animation film directed by animation artist Saku Sakamoto, who is also in charge of the original story, screenplay, and music. Osamu Fukutani is also the general director, producer, and producer.
Set in a huge apartment complex with a bad reputation, female college student Rin and high school girl Tamahi get caught up in various strange happenings and approach the hidden mystery.
This is a work for overseas audiences that reinterprets Director Sakamoto's previous works, "Feast of Amrita" (starring Uchida Maaya), which was officially screened at the Sitges Catalonia International Film Festival, the highest level of fantastic film festivals, and "ARAGNE: Sign of Vermillion" (starring Hanazawa Kana), which was invited to be screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2019, with new cuts and new scenes. It is not yet decided whether to release it in Japan.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival is the world's oldest and largest animated film festival, established in 1960 when the animation department was separated from the Cannes International Film Festival. It is the "world's most beautiful film festival" in the south of France, which even the famous Osamu Tezuka described as "heaven on earth" when he attended.
Nearly 4,000 anime films (total for all categories) are submitted from about 100 countries, both professional and amateur, and about 110 works are selected and screened. Over 120,000 visitors attend every year, and the excitement is said to surpass that of Cannes.
In May of this year, we received a notice that the new horror anime film "Nightmare Bugs" had been selected for the Midnight Specials category and would be screened at the anime world's biggest stage.
It was suddenly decided that the general director, Osamu Fukutani, would make an appearance on stage to greet the audience, and he traveled to France (unfortunately, the director who worked on the animation, Saku Sakamoto, was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts).
Fukutani took a total of 13 hours to fly to Geneva Airport in Switzerland, and then another hour by taxi to arrive at Annecy, a city in the southeast of France.
Prior to the screening, we visited MIFA, the world's largest international anime market, which is held alongside the film festival.
At the Japan booth, the works that will be screened at this year's festival, including "Nightmare Bugs," are introduced. Fukutani also signed the poster wall and briefly participated in the party.
The "Midnight Specials" category, in which "Nightmare Bugs" was selected this time, is a popular program in which experimental, cutting-edge, and thrilling works with appealing visual expressions are carefully selected and screened late.
Japanese films that will be screened alongside "Nightmare Bugs" in the Midnight Specials category this year in 2025 include "Mononoke: The Movie Chapter 2-The Ashes of Rage" which is currently in theaters, and Studio 4℃'s popular work "All You Need Is Kill."
We finally headed to Bonlieu Grande Salle, the main venue of the film festival, where "Nightmare Bugs" was being screened.
The film was screened on June 10th and 13th, and on the 13th, where the stage greeting took place, it was the final screening of the entire festival program. Although it was a great honor, the main venue has a capacity of 950 people, and the screening started at 11pm, so there were concerns about the attendance...
A long line of spectators formed early before the screening! Everyone said they were looking forward to "Nightmare Bugs".
In the end, the audience was almost full, and we were relieved.
The stage greeting finally began.
I was very nervous, but thanks to the MC and Mr. Kazahaya, who acted as an interpreter, I managed to get through it.
During the screening, there were many applause at scenes full of visual beauty and fantastical scenes, and the reaction was better than expected.
The audience applauded during the end credits, and the excitement was so great that he went back on stage to take a commemorative photo with the audience.
It was already past 1am, so it was difficult to hold an autograph session in the lobby, but he did an impromptu autograph session for the audience waiting outside the venue.
It was a busy schedule, with a flight back home the next morning, but we had an unforgettable time.
The release date of "Nightmare Bugs" in Japan has yet to be decided. We will report on any developments as they occur.
[Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025 "Nightmare Bugs" Exhibition Information]
■ Film festival "Nightmare Bugs" introduction page
■ Midnight Special section lineup
■ Annecy International Animation Film Festival / Film Festival TOP
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