Entries for the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival will open from next week – from Monday 7th of July until Tuesday 2nd of September.
Hosted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs since 1997, the festival recognizes works of excellence in the art, entertainment, animation and manga divisions.
Winners of the Grand Prize, Excellence Award and New Face Award in each division, in addition to Jury Selections works, will be announced in late November.
The 17th festival received a record 4,347 entries from 84 countries and regions.
Professional and amateur artists from around the world can submit their self-produced or commercial pieces completed or released between Sept. 13, 2013 – and Sept. 2, 2014.
Last year, “Approved For Adoption” an animated documentary film by Jung Henin and Laurent Boileau, won the Grand Prize award in the Animation Division. It became the first work produced by non-Japanese (French) creators to receive the honor in the division. Nice one !
Watch “Approved by Adoption” official trailer: here
Visit the official website: http://www.approvedforadoption.com
Animated Documentary, Laurent Boileau/Jung Henin, France.
Official description:
This remarkable animated doc traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by Western families after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of a boy stranded between two cultures. Sepia-toned animated vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day he first meets his new blond siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and ignite the latent biases of his adoptive parents. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage and archival film. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous and wry, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart.
Hirohiko Araki’s “JoJolion–JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8” won the Grand Prize award in the Manga Division.
The awards ceremony will be held Feb. 3, 2015 – An exhibition of the winning works will be held Feb. 4-15 at the National Art Center, Tokyo, in the capital’s Roppongi district, as well as other venues. As usual, screenings, artist talks, symposiums and other programs will be offered.
For more information on how you can enter, visit the festival’s official website at: http://j-mediaarts.jp/?locale=en
To see the original story in Japanese, go to the official site of “Anime Anime”: http://animeanime.jp
Credits: Translated by The Asahi Shimbun from the website of Anime Anime Japan Ltd.
Image credits: http://www.gkids.tv/approved
Sources: Asahi, Anime Japan, Japan Media Arts
