New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival 2015, the second in a series, will be held in its entirety in the airport compound from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, 2015. The international festival, held mainly at three theaters located in the airport, will promote exchange between fans and authors, foreign and Japanese, about animation which has grown into something of an internationally common culture.

The International Competition, the pillar of the festival, has 1,103 entries, up about 400 from last year, from 59 countries and regions of the world, which will go through the first elimination process to be boiled down to 51 pieces from 18 countries eligible for special screening. Two new competitions were added in this second year; "Music Animation Competition" for an effective combination of animation and music and "Japan Competition".

In addition to screening competitive works, a number of invited works will also be screened during the festival. This year, "Bakuon Screening" or extremely loud screening using concert equipment will be held every day during the festival. The legendary masterpiece "Yellow Submarine" featuring the Beatles characters, "STEAMBOY" by director Katsuhiro Otomo, "INNOCENCE" by director Mamoru Oshii, and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" will all be screened in a daily rotation.

Moreover, popular voice-over actors and actresses, including Yui Ishikawa playing heroin Mikasa Ackerman in the "Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)" Parts 1 & 2, Daiki Yamashita playing lead character Sakamichi Onoda and Jun Fukushima playing Shokichi Naruko in "Yowamushi Pedal the Movie," will be invited to the theaters as guests and also join in talk shows at the Center Plaza.

In addition, the original drawings of popular animation works, including "Attack on Titan," "Yowamushi Pedal the Movie" and "Mobile Suit Gundam THE ORIGIN I Blue-Eyed Casval," will be showcased in the Center Plaza on the second floor of the domestic terminal. In the "Hatsune Miku" corner, visitors will be able to enjoy her life-size figures and "fuwa-fuwa" stuffed doll.

For more information on the festival, please visit the official festival website (http://airport-anifes.jp/en/).