JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL OVERSEAS PROMOTION

21st Japan Media Arts Festival Award-winning Program

This program comprises 11 highly distinctive works from award-winning works of the Animation, Entertainment, and Art Division from the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival

Art Division : Award-winning Works

Excellence Award

“Datum Point” (2015)

Ryo ORIKASA

Video work [6min. 41sec.]

Yoshiro Ishihara (1915 - 1977) is considered to be a poet who represents the postwar period of Japan, and is known to have spent time detained in Siberia. This movie was created by engraving his poem "Suijun-genten (Datum Point)" in clay and using stop motion animation, taking approximately one year to make. The presentation of the claymation draws out the drama contained within the simple repetition of the waves.

Excellence Award

“Language Producing Factory” (2016)

DAI Furen

Language Producing Factory [9min. 12sec.]

Furen Dai's video work began with her research on a Secret Women Language called NvShu, which originated and developed as a secret code among women in Hunan Province, China. Through research she discovered that though the language has lost its functionality, women who know the language have been pressured into performing their cultural activities as entertainment for tourists for menial wages.

New Face Award

“Panderer (Seventeen Seconds)” (2016)

Gary SETZER

Video work [17sec.]

In the alarmingly short artwork, Panderer (Seventeen Seconds), the artist directly addresses his audience while a counter displays the passing seconds. Using a self-reflexive format, Setzer humorously calls attention to the average amount of time viewers spend with an artwork in museums—seventeen seconds. This artwork conforms to the unrealistic needs of the “average viewer”—a logical but absurd move that effectively lampoons our impractical expectations of the art experience.

Entertainment Division : Award-winning Works

Excellence Award

“INDUSTRIAL JP” (2016)

INDUSTRIAL JP

Video / Sound work [4min. 16sec.]

INDUSTRIAL JP is the project to make small factories in Japan "the Label". Featuring those factories in Japan that form the foundation of Japanese cutting-edge technology, acclaimed trackmakers remix the sounds and visuals generated from dense manufacturing process of small factories. In the course of such remix, trackmakers transform those sounds and visuals into "Art".

Enjoy this unprecedented experience generaed from hybrid of Japanese cutting-edge technology and music.

New Face Award

“The Blind Fish” (2017)

ISHIKAWA Yasuaki / MIKADUKI Hutatsu / KONDO Keishi

Video / Sound work [4min. 52sec.]

A small fish lives at the bottom of a lake, so deep that no light reaches her. She sings a nostalgic lullaby she remembers hearing in a fishbowl. "Back then everything looked sad and I ran away from it all... But was it really that bad?" At such times, with such thoughts, she misses the warm light.

Animation Division : Award-winning Works

Grand Prize

“In This Corner of the World -trailer” (2017)

Sunao KATABUCHI

Animated feature film -trailer [1min. 48sec.]

February 1944. 18-year-old Suzu receives a marriage proposal, leaving her hometown of Hiroshima and moving to nearby Kure. Her new family includes her husband Shusaku, as well as his parents, sister, and niece. As the war continues on and rationed goods slow to a trickle, Suzu strives to keep her family alive and happy. One day air raid sirens sound overhead, as American bombers make their way to Hiroshima...

Grand Prize

“Lu over the wall -trailer” (2017)

Masaaki YUASA

Animated feature film -trailer [1min. 35sec.]

"Kai is a boy who lives in a lonely fishing village. One day, he meets and befriends Lu, a mermaid who likes singing and dancing. But, the town's people have always thought that mermaids bring disaster. Something happens that puts a huge rift between Lu and the villagers, endangering the town. "

Excellence Award

“Harmonia feat. Makoto” (2017)

Tarafu OTANI

Animated short film [3min. 50sec.]

I don't want to get out of bed, but morning is coming.
Short break in the fantasy world.
Music Video for yuichi NAGAOs Electronica music "Harmonia".

Excellence Award

“Negative Space” (2017)

KUWAHATA Ru / Max PORTER

Animated short film [5min. 30sec.]

Based on a 150-word poem by Ron Koertge, “Negative Space” is a short animated film that depicts a father-and-son relationship through the art of packing a suitcase.

New Face Award

“The First Thunder” (2017)

Anastasia MELIKHOVA

Animated short film [5min.]

It is a musical fantasy about the awakening of nature and the character from winter hibernation, about the way out of its own "world" into a world which is full of beauty and adventures.

New Face Award

“Yin” (2017)

Nicolas FONG

Animated short film [10min. 30sec.]

Surrounded by several couples, a god becomes bored, because he is on his own and jealous of the others’ happiness. He breathes out, creating a single mountain. He installs Yin and Yang, the man and the woman. The two of them try in vain to meet. The jealous god is pleased with his cruel entertainment.