Anime Director Masaaki Yuasa Set to Curate Toronto Fest Classic Film Showcase

The Toronto Film Festival is set to showcase classic films selected by Japanese anime director Masaaki Yuasa that influenced his celebrated animation.

Yuasa is known for surreal storytelling and a distinct anime visual style for films like Night is Short, Walk on Girl, Ride Your Wave, his directorial debut Mind Game and Lu Over the Wall, an Annecy award winner. He also directed an episode of Adventure Time and worked on Netflix’s DEVILMAN Crybaby.

In all, 17 features and four shorts selected by Yuasa, including movies by Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki, Sylvain Chomet and Rene Laloux, will feature as part of the Drawn Universes: Visions in Animation program. The series, to run Nov. 19 to Dec. 29 at TIFF Lightbox, will include conversations with Yuasa and the Japanese director introducing screenings of Richard Williams’ The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time and Isao Takahata’s Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables.

Drawn Universes: Visions in Animation will launch with Paul Grimault’s The King and the Mockingbird on Nov. 19.

Yuasa said in a director’s statement released by TIFF: “In curating this series, I wanted to look back at films that sparked my own imagination and influenced both my predecessors and the generations that followed. The diverse lineup includes foundational achievements like Pinocchio and Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro; visionary masterpieces such as AKIRA, Fantastic Planet and Toy Story 3; and contemporary classics including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Liz and the Blue Bird. Taken together, these films demonstrate boundless imagination, extraordinary technical skill, and world-building at the highest level, revealing the limitless potential of animated storytelling.”

Yuasa in 2013 co-founded Science SARU with Eunyoung Choi, left in 2020 and in 2025 he established ame pippin Inc.