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Mirai Wins Japan Academy Prizes' Animation Award
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai Film won the Animation of the Year award at the 42nd annual Japan Academy Prizes on Friday. Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Penguin Highway, Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer, and Okko's Inn were also nominated in the category.
Actors who received the Newcomer of the Year award include Yurina Hirate (live-action Hibiki: Shōsetsuka ni Naru Hōhō), Kyōko Yoshine (live-action Kasane, Chiritsubaki), Taishi Nakagawa (live-action Kids on the Slope, Kakugo wa Ii ka Soko no Joshi.), Ryō Narita (live-action Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia's Case Files), and Ryō Yoshizawa (live-action River's Edge).
Animator Yasuo Ōtsuka (Horus - Prince of the Sun, Panda! Go, Panda!, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro) received an Association's Special Award for lifetime achievement. Actress Keiko Kishi (Grave of the Fireflies) and director Junya Sato (live-action Golgo 13) also received Chairperson's Awards for lifetime achievement.
Director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya), actress Yuriko Hoshi (Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot to Marple), actress Kirin Kiki (Jack to Mame no Ki, The Secret World of Arrietty), and producer Mitsuru Kurosawa (live-action Uzumaki, Boogiepop and Others) are among the six individuals who received posthumous Chairperson's Special Awards for lifetime achievement.
The Nippon Academy-Sho Association, a Japanese group roughly comparable to America's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Oscars fame, presents the Japan Academy Prizes every year. The nominees all receive "Awards of Excellence," but the actual top award in each category was presented in a ceremony on March 1 at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo.
Movies were eligible for awards if they opened in Japan between December 16, 2017, and December 15, 2018.
The Animation of the Year category was only created 12 years ago. Last year, Night is Short, Walk On Girl won the award. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tekkonkinkreet, Ponyo, Summer Wars, The Secret World of Arrietty, From Up On Poppy Hill, Wolf Children, The Wind Rises, Stand By Me Doraemon, The Boy and The Beast, and In This Corner of the World were the previous winners. Before that, Studio Ghibli won the overall Picture of the Year Award for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.
Sources: Japan Academy Prize Association, Comic Natalie, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web (link 2)
