The Day of the Crows – East Coast Premiere, Canada/France, Jean-Christophe Dessaint. Raised like an animal since birth and knowing only the ways of the wild, a nameless boy has been forbidden by his father to venture beyond the edge of the forest that is their home. But when his father is injured, the boy goes to a nearby town for help – where he experiences the wonders of human contact and civilized living for the first time. With tips of the hat to the enchanted forest worlds of Hayao Miyazaki and François Truffaut’s The Wild Child, this lushly animated film travels the blurred lines between animal and human, nature and civilization, and the realms of the living and of spirits.

In French with English subtitles - Recommended ages 7 to adult.

Ernest & Celestine, Opening Night Film – US Premiere, Belgium/France, Renner/Patar/Aubier. NYICFF kicks off the 2013 festival with the extraordinary new film from the producers of Kirikou and the Sorceress, Triplets of Belleville and The Secret of Kells. Fresh from standing ovations at Toronto and Cannes, Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animation. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets and tucked away amongst winding tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer – and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for grumpy troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond and are soon living together as outcasts in a winter cottage. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde.

In French with English subtitles - Recommended ages 7 to adult – or all ages for French speaking audiences.

From Up on Poppy Hill – US Premiere, Japan, Goro Miyazaki. The newest feature from the legendary Studio Ghibli has written by studio founder Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Goro Miyazaki, marking the first feature film collaboration between father and son. The results are stunning – a pure, sincere, nuanced and heartfelt film that signals yet another triumph for the esteemed studio. Set in Yokohama in 1964, the film centers on an innocent romance developing between two high-school kids caught up in the changing times, as the country picks itself up from the devastation of World War 2 and prepares to host the 1964 Olympics. Star-filled voice cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Christina Hendricks, Ron Howard and Anton Yelchin.

In English - Recommended ages 9 to adult

Hey Krishna – North American Premiere, India, Vikram Veturi. Packed with iridescent hues, outrageous characters, epic battles and endearingly loopy Bollywood-style musical interludes, Hey Krishna is a vibrantly colorful cartoon retelling of the life of the child Krishna – the naughty prankster with the beautiful blue hue and long eyelashes. A prophesy foretells that the tyrant Kans will be killed by Krishna, the eighth child of his sister Devaki, and so Kans has Devaki imprisoned. But the infant Krishna is spirited away to a nearby village and raised by peasants – and when Kans hears that Krishna has escaped his fate, he sends out demons and monsters to finish the job.

In English - Recommended ages 8 to adult

Kauwboy – East Coast Premiere, Netherlands, Boudewijn Koole. The Netherlands’ official entry for this year’s Oscars and winner of the Best First Feature award at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, Kauwboy is a tender portrait of a boy struggling to come to terms with a family that’s not what it once was. With his country-singer mother absent, Jojo lives alone with his security guard father, a man of few words, who is quick to anger and has seemingly no affection for his 10-year-old son. Left to his own devices, Jojo finds an abandoned baby crow in the woods near their house – and finds solace in caring for this small creature, who is even more alone and vulnerable than he is.