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Masaaki Yuasa's 'Night is Short, Walk on Girl' Anime Film Wins Ottawa Int'l Film Festival Award
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Ottawa International Film Festival awarded Masaaki Yuasa's Night is Short, Walk On Girl (Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome) anime film with the Grand Prize for Features award on Saturday.
The film screened in competition alongside Yuasa's other recent film Lu over the wall (Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta). Yuasa was the first filmmaker in the festival's history to have two nominations in the features category. The two films competed against Jong-duck Cho's My Dogs, Jinjin and Akida, Clyde Petersen's Torrey Pines, and Youngsun Lee's I'll Just Live in Bando films.
Mari Miyazawa's "Konigiri-Kun: Kitchen Sports Day" ("Konigiri-kun Undokai") five-minute stop-motion short screened in the "Young Audiences 1 - Preschool Competition" category, and received an Honourable Mention.
Lu over the wall opened in Japan on May 19, and won the top "Cristal for a Feature Film" award at the Annecy International Film Festival in June. The film is Yuasa's first anime film with an original story.
Night is Short, Walk On Girl opened in Japan on April 7. The film adapts Tomihiko Morimi's (The Eccentric Family, The Tatami Galaxy) novel of the same name.
The main staff of The Tatami Galaxy anime returned for the film. Yuasa directed the film at his Science SARU studio, and Makoto Ueda wrote the script. Yūsuke Nakamura, the cover artist for the original novel as well as The Tatami Galaxy, designed the characters. Michiru Oshima composed the music.
The story takes place in Kyoto, and follows an upperclassman ("Sempai") who falls in love with his underclassman ("Girl with Black Hair") and tries to get her attention.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is being held from September 20-24. The festival previously screened Yuasa's Kick-Heart short in competition in 2013.
