Announcement of Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2020 Competition Winners!

March 31, 2020

TAAF Competition is open to all animated films that have yet to be released in Japan from both professional and amateur applicants.

Feature Animation is for the films longer than 60 minutes, Short Animation is for the films, less than 30 minutes. This year, there were 29 submissions (20, last year) from 22 countries and territories for Feature Animation and 1,054 submissions (773, last year) from 67 countries and territories for Short Animation. Both numbers were higher than last year. Among them, a total of 36 films (4 Feature Animations + 32 Short Animations) were selected by the preliminary selection committee as the nominees for competition.

As a countermeasure against the COVID-19, judging for the Competition took place this year through the online screenings and video conferences of the juries from each country to decide the winners in the Feature Animation and Short Animation.

The juries and their results are as follows.

TAAF2020 Feature Animation Competition Jury

Atsuko IshizukaDirector

Atsuko Ishizuka made several video works while studying at Aichi University of the Arts. She Joined MADHOUSE in 2004. She worked for the setting production as a newcomer, meanwhile, she made her debut as a director with animation music video “Tsuki no Waltz” for NHK’s Minna no Uta. Afterward, she joined in numerous films of MADHOUSE as director and series director. As a director, she made the TV series “NO GAME NO LIFE”, “Hanayamata”, “Prince of Stride: Alternative” etc. energetically. Her work “No Game, No Life the Movie: Zero” is still fresh in our minds. In 2018, she directed the fully original animation “A Place Further than the Universe”.

Yoshihiro ShimizuDirector, Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd.

Yoshihiro Shimizu, who met Osamu Tezuka in 1978, started his career in the realm of animation as a contractor for Tezuka Productions still in college and officially joined the company after the graduation. He has planned several animations, including “Black Jack”(movie, 1996) and “Astro Boy” (TV series, 2003), and exhibitions including Osamu TEZUKA Exhibition at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1990). For the movie “Astro Boy”(2009) produced in Hollywood, he was Creative Consultant. In 2011, he served as a jury of Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Now he is Director of the company (since 2018) and Standing Director of The Association of Japanese Animations.

Eric RadomskiSenior Vice President, Executive Producer, Marvel Animation Studios

Eric Radomski, Marvel Animation’s Senior Vice President and Creative Director of Animation, is a three-time Emmy winning producer/director. Having been with Marvel Animation since “Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man”, Radomski has worked in the industry for a little more than three decades. His many credits include “Batman: The Animated Series”, HBO’s “Spawn”, and “Xiaolin Showdown”. He is currently the executive producer on “Marvel’s Avengers: Black Panther’s Quest”, “Marvel’s Spider-Man”, “Marvel Rising Series” and a new series for Disney Junior, “Spidey and his Amazing Friends” due to release in 2021.

Raul GarciaDirector/ Animator

Born in Madrid. He worked for the Walt Disney Studios on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “Lion King”, “Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Hercules” and “Pocahontas”. After “Fantasia 2000” he moved as sequence director for Paramount on films like “The Rugrats in Paris”, “The Wild Thornberries Movie” and “Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius” nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature. In 2002 he joined Kandor Graphics as co-writer and director on the feature film “The Missing Lynx”, winner of the Goya award in 2008. In 2015 he directed “Extraordinary Tales” nominated best director at the 2016 ANNIE Awards He is currently developing the animated series “Bitten” based on Cornelia Funke’s children book “Little werewolf”. Raul is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences of Hollywood , He has published two books in animation techniques and is senior lecturer at the Lasalle College of the arts in Singapore.

TAAF2020 Short Animation Competition Jury

Bak IkedaMulti Creator

After working as a musician and CG creator, Bak Ikeda became an animation creator unconsciously. He leads the short animation production unit Bomfor64 which celebrated its 10th anniversary, along with Hiroyuki Morita and Mayama Mammy. His major works include “PiNMeN”, “PiNMeN rework”(TV animation series, DVD), Bak Ikeda GEKIJO “Music is amazing” (DVD). Director of JAPAN ANIMATION ASSOCIATION. FD of INTO ANIMATION. Lecturer of Tokyo Zokei University.

Takeshi InamuraSupervising Animator

While at Shin-Ei Animation, Inamura was an in-between animator and in-between checker. After joining Studio Ghibli in 1991 he was a key animator and supervising animator for several productions. Notable works as a key animator include “My Neighbors the Yamadas”(1999), “Spirited Away”(2001), “The Cat Returns”(2002), “Arrietty”(2006), and “The Wind Rises”(2013). He worked on “Ponyo”(2008) and “When Marnie Was There”(2014) as the assistant supervising animator, and was the supervising animator for “Howl’s Moving Castle”(2004), “Tales from Earthsea”(2006), and “From Up on Poppy Hill”(2011). He was a director & animator for two Ghibli Museum short films, “The Whale Hunt”(2001) and “Treasure Hunting”(2011). After leaving Studio Ghibli, he worked on “The Boy and the Beast”(2015) and “Your Name”(2016) as a key animator. After then, he joined STUDIO PONOC.

Jie WengDirector

Born in Fujian, China, he studied classical oil painting with his father from childhood. Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Sculpture from China Academy of Art. Currently teaching at the Animation Department of the Academy of Film and Animation, China Academy of Art. In 2015, he founded the “Realwood Stop Motion Animation Studio” as the studio director and art director. He led the studio to develop and develop original stop motion animation, and devoted himself to the research and application of animation technology, new materials and animation language. His works have won several international awards.

©Gerard Cassadó

Michael Dudok de WitDirector

Born in the Netherlands in 1953. Since 1980 he lives in London where he has directed and animated short films and many award-winning commercials for television and cinema. In 1992 he created his short “Tom Sweep”, followed by “The Monk and the Fish” which was made at the studio Folimage, France. This film was nominated for an Oscar and it won a César. His best known short film “Father and Daughter” won the Grand Prix in Annecy, an Oscar and a BAFTA award. In 2004 he completed his short film “The Aroma of Tea” and he has recently written and directed the feature film “The Red Turtle” in France with Prima Linea Productions. “The Red Turtle” was coproduced by Studio Ghibli, Japan. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film (2017) and it has won the Special Prize at Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2016, as well as numerous other international awards.

The View of Final Judge

As a countermeasure against the COVID-19, judging for the Competition took place this year through the video conferences of the juries from each country on March 14th.

The winners in the Feature Animation and Short Animation have decided.