Innocence

The Animation Kobe (アニメーション神戸) was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The Animation Kobe Awards (アニメーション神戸賞) were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organizing Committee to creators and creations.

Animation films released in Japan from September of the previous year to August of the event year become candidates. The candidates are selected not only from Japan, but also from other countries. However, the committee sees more importance in a point of view promoting young creators of Japan.

(Source: Wikipedia)

There are currently three different continuities: "Ghost in the Shell", "Stand Alone Complex", and "Arise". They all heavily reference the first movie from the Ghost in the Shell continuity so I would recommend starting from that one and watch either SAC or Arise afterwards. The former is the closest to the first movie, the latter is more action-focused.
Special summaries and comedic shorts not included.

The "Scotland Loves Anime" film festival takes place annually in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was started in 2010 and includes the "Golden Partridge" jury award and audience-voted awards.

The past winners of the Golden Partridge Award are as follows.

2021: Gyokou no Nikuko-chan
2022: Goodbye, Don Glees!
2023: Hokkyoku Hyakkaten no Concierge-san.

List of anime for "elitist". These anime have been considered as "deep" animations by various critics and analysts.

In this compilation there are animes with quite complicated stories that are not recommended for all audiences. As they are: cult, artistic, experimental, avant-garde, underrated, psychological, philosophical, unique or mind-blowing anime.

This list has a part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4197

Art house, in relation to cinema, is a genre of films that are intended to be serious artistic works rather than merely popular entertainment but the descriptor can also be applied to anime. Furthermore, avant-garde refers to innovative, experimental, radical or unorthodox concepts and techniques. This can of course also be used in reference to anime and manga.

As MAL currently sadly only allows a max of 50 entries on interests stacks this list mainly prioritises the stand out and most high quality examples of avant-garde and art house anime television shows, feature films, OVAs and short film compilations. For a more comprehensive list which features the numerous experimental short films on the site as well as manga, I direct you to my accompanying Art house, Avant-Garde and Experimental club of the same name.

Associated words: Dark (Visually and/or Thematically), Story-centric, Atmospheric, Abstract, Psychological, Unorthodox, Nihilistic, AND/OR Avant-garde
(Emphasis on AND/OR)


Do check out the other 'half': https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4917 (Some shows could also fit here)

Anime that are aimed at an adult audience.

If you want Ghibli Movies, go to my another stack https://myanimelist.net/stacks/5992

Shows where ships play some fairly notable part in the story. Stack is biased toward ocean-going vessels. Submarines are also included.

One of my most favorite scenarios: Retro futurism plus Cyberpunk;
please enjoy!
Sorted Chronologically

This is a part of a series of stacks that are about artistic tendencies in anime (and that border the fine line between sophisticated and pretentious).

This stack is a work in progress.

Bibliography:
Bitmap. “Denpa bigaku riron: the Rise of the ‘Radio’ Aesthetic in Japanese Subculture in the 21st Century.” Altair and Vega. 21 March 2012.
Kenji the Engi. “On Denpa: A Guest Article by Kenji the Engi.” Ed. Toadette. On the Ones. 29 June 2019.
illconstruct. “What are Denpa (Dempa/電波) Visual Novels? An Introduction to the Weird World of Denpa Games.” 5 March 2021. Warudo Chaos. 5 Februari 2022.

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The heart of the "hard science fiction" designation is the relationship of the science content and attitude to the rest of the narrative, and the "hardness" or rigor of the science itself. One requirement for hard SF is procedural or intentional: a story should try to be accurate, logical, credible and rigorous in its use of current scientific and technical knowledge about which technology, phenomena, scenarios and situations that are practically or theoretically possible. For example, the development of concrete proposals for spaceships, space stations, space missions, and a US space program in the 1950s and 1960s influenced a widespread proliferation of "hard" space stories.

(Note: not all of these works are considered hard sci-fi, but I decided to put them here due to them being potentially interesting to people that love logical space-themed stories as much as I do)

A comprehensive watch order of the Ghost in the Shell series, which includes every entry of the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
Original Guide:https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1864302

Note the difference between Movies section and TV series section.

AEGC Interest Stack index: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2017008

Featuring little to no dialogue and/or characters and the experience is carried by the music and/or visual atmosphere.

Part 1 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/311
Part 2 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/5128
Part 3 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/8036
Part 4 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/8173
Part 5 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9135
Part 6 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9240
Part 7 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9448
Part 8 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9461
Part 9 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/20874

50 beautiful anime movies.

Zima Entertainment is a Mexican distributor dedicated to distributing movies and series in theaters and home format, mainly only in their original language with subtitles. In this list you will find all the animes that they have distributed, both in home format and movie theaters.

These series / movies are great to start with and don't require a lot of effort, like saying chill (ok maybe for evangelion no but ssshhh), they are divinely animated works.