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Animafest Zagreb Nominates Wolf Children, Tatsumi Films
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Croatian film festival Animafest Zagreb announced on Monday the nine nominees for its Grand Prix award, including Eric Khoo's Tatsumi film and Mamoru Hosoda's Wolf Children film. A total of 65 films from 29 countries were submitted for the prize.
Wolf Children's story covers 13 years and begins with a 19-year-old college student named Hana who encounters and falls in "fairy tale-like" love with a "wolf man." After marrying the wolf man, Hana gives birth and raises two wolf children — an older sister named Yuki ("snow") who was born on a snowy day, and a younger brother named Ame ("rain") who was born on a rainy day. When the wolf man suddenly dies, Hana decides to move to a rural town far removed from the city. Funimation licensed Wolf Children and plans to release it this year in theaters and on home video.
The film won the Animation of the Year award at this year's Tokyo Anime Awards, and also won the animation category in the 26th Annual Japan Academy Prizes last month, and won the Animation Film Award at the 67th Annual Mainichi Film Awards in February. Additionally, the film won an Audience Award at this year's New York International Children's Film Festival.
Khoo's animated film adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life autobiographical manga retells the namesake creator's struggle to make a living after World War II. Tatsumi and others began challenging normal standards of manga drawing by pioneering a nontraditional gekiga style of storytelling and art design. The film previously screened at France's Cannes film festival in the Un Certain Regard category, won the Best Animated Film award at Spain's Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival and the best film award at the Dubai International Film Festival, and received special mention in the Winds of Asia-Middle East category at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2011. KimStim released Tatsumi on DVD in North America on March 26.
The two films are competing against Jung and Laurent Boileau's Approved for Adoption, Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, and Ben Timlett's A Liar's Autobiography, Christopher Sullivan's Consuming Spirits, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner's Erenest and Celestine, Enzo d'Alò's Pinocchio, Jean-François Laguionie's The Painting, and Ignacio Ferreras' Wrinkles films. The festival is also screening five films out of competition, including Sang-ho Yeun's The King of Pigs film.
Animafest Zagreb is a film festival celebrating animated films worldwide, and was first held in 1972. The festival changed from a biennial event to an annual event in 2005, and focuses on feature films in odd-numbered years and short films in even-numbered years.
This year's festival will be held from June 4-9, and the winners will be announced on the festival's final day.
Source: animeanime.jp
