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Koji Yamamura, Yoriko Mizushiri Win Annecy Awards
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Koji Yamamura's Ikuta no Kita anime film won the Contrechamp award at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Yoriko Mizushiri's "Fuan na Tai" ("Anxious Body") short won the Jury Mention in the Official Short Films category.
"Fuan no Tai" won the Jury Mention "For its beautifully crafted animation and its great physical experience."
Ikuta no Kita screened in the Feature Films Contrechamp in Competition category this year. "Fuan na Tai" screened in the Official Short Films category along with Atsushi Wada's Hantō no Tori ("Bird in the Peninsula"), Honami Yano's "Honekami" ("A Bite of Bone"), and Ryō Hirano's "KRASUE."
The festival also screened Atsuko Ishizuka and Madhouse's Goodbye, Don Glees! anime film and Shinya Kawatsura and david production's The House of the Lost on the Cape film in competition in the Official Feature Films category, but Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre's Le Petit Nicolas - Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux? film won the Cristal for a Feature Film award.
The festival also screened the first episode of Shingo Natsume and Madhouse's original science-fiction anime Sonny Boy in the TV Films category, but the episode did not win an award.
Outside of competition, the festival screened loundraw's Summer Ghost film and Wit Studio's The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún film as part of its "Midnight Screenings" program. The event also screened Yasuhiro Yoshiura and J.C. Staff's Sing a Bit of Harmony anime film outside of competition.
Other Japanese works in competition included Koji Yamamura's "Hokkyoku-Guma Suggoku Hima" ("Polar Bear Bears Boredom") in the Young Audiences Short Films category.
Masaaki Yuasa (DEVILMAN crybaby, Japan Sinks: 2020) was a Mifa (International Animation Film Market) Campus patron at this year's event and presented a masterclass on June 17. He also presented a screening of his INU-OH film.
Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival. This year's event took place from June 13-18 in the French town of the same name.
