Top honors at the inaugural event go to the Swiss filmmaker’s Darwin's Notebook, winner also of the category award in ‘Adventure in Storytelling.’
The first edition of the Hiroshima Animation Season 2022 animation festival concluded with its closing ceremonies on Sunday, August 21, where the Grand Prix and other award-winning films were announced. The competition received 2,149 entries from 86 countries and regions, with 54 selected for competition in two categories: Pan Pacific and Asia Competition, and World Competition.
The Winners:
The Grand Prix was awarded to Darwin's Notebook, a short film by Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel.
In the Pan-Pacific and Asia Competition:
- Best Film - Los Huesos directed by Cristobal León and Joaquin Cocina, Chile
- Jury Personal Pick – Florence Miaihe Award: Bird in the Peninsula, directed by Atsushi Wada, Japan
- Jury Personal Pick - Chris Robinson Award: The Loach, directed by Chen Xi and An Xu, China
- Jury Personal Pick -Joe Hsieh: Bestia, directed by Hugo Covarrubias, Chile
- Audience Award - Bird in the Peninsula, directed by Atsushi Wada, Japan
World Competition:
Categories:
- Allegories Nowadays - Audience Award: Skinned, directed by Joachim Hérissé, France
- A Slice of Society - Audience Award: Precious, directed by Paul Mas, France
- Adventure in Storytelling - Audience Award: Darwin's Notebook, directed by Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland
- Visual Poetry - Audience Award: Zoon directed by Jonatan Schwenk, Germany
- The Spark: Films for Children - Audience Award: A Town Called Panic: The Summer Holidays, directed by Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier, Belgium, and France
Allegories Nowadays - fiction-based films:
- Category Award: Skinned, directed by Joachim Hérissé, France
- Arthur Binard Award: Confessions of an English Ant-Eater directed by Alex Crumbie, U.K.
- Hiroko Sebu Award: In the Mountains, directed by Wally Chung, USA
- Shizuka Miyazaki Award: Prince in a Pastry Shop directed by Katarzyna Agopsowicz, Poland
A Slice of Society - animated documentaries and films with social issues
- Category Award: Salvia at Nine, directed by Jang Nari, Korea)
- Kiki Sugino Award: The House of Loss, directed by Jinkyu Jeon, Japan, Korea
- Asako Fujioka Award: All Those Sensations in My Belly, directed by Marko Dješka, Croatia
- Honami Yano Award: Mom, What’s up with the Dog?, directed by Lola Lefevre, France
Adventure in Storytelling - films with a unique narrative
- Category Award: Darwin's Notebook, directed by Georges Schwizgebel
- Min Tanaka Award: The Blind Writer, directed by Georges Sifianos, Greece
- Yuki Harada Award: My Father's Damn Camera, directed by Milos Tomic, Slovenia
- Sarina Nihei Award: In the Big Yard Inside the Teeny-weeny Pocket, directed by Yoko Yuki, Japan
Visual Poetry - poetic films
- Category Award: Archipel,directed by Felix Dufour-Laperriere, Canada
- Ma Jung-Yeon Award: Intermission, directed by Réka Bucsi, Hungary
- Daito Manabe Award: Clockwise, directed by Toni Mitjanit, Spain
- Koji Yamamura Award: Zoon, directed by Jonatan Schwenk, Germany
Special Jury Awards:
- Feature Film Jury Award When You Get to The Forest, directed by Eric Power, USA
- Hiroshima Choice Award and Hiroshima Animation City Award: A Town Called Panic: The Summer Holidays, directed by Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier, Belgium, France
The next Hiroshima Animation Season will be in August 2024.
Source: Hiroshima Animation Season
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
