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Weathering With You Wins Japan Academy Prizes' Animation Award

Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You film won the Animation of the Year award at the 43rd annual Japan Academy Prizes on Friday. Her Blue Sky, Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire, Lupin III THE FIRST, and One Piece Stampede were also nominated in the category.

Director Hideki Takeuchi won the Director of the Year award for his work on Tonde Saitama. Kingdom director Shinsuke Satō was also nominated for the award.

Tonde Saitama's Tomokazu Tokunaga won the Screenplay of the Year award. The film's Shinji Kawamura won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing. The film was also nominated in the best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, cinematography, art direction, and sound recording categories.

Kingdom's Ryō Yoshizawa, Masami Nagasawa, Tarō Kawazu, and Iwao Saitō won the Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, and Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction awards, respectively. The film was also nominated in the best picture, sound recording, and editing categories.

RADWIMPS received the Outstanding Achievement in Music award for their work on Weathering With You. Tonde Saitama's Face 2 fAKE and Kingdom's Yutaka Yamada were also nominated for the award.

Animator Yôichi Kotabe (Horus - Prince of the Sun, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Pokémon) and optical and film engineer Tetsuo Kaneko (Macross Plus, Ghost in the Shell) received Association's Special Awards for lifetime achievement. Scriptwriter Kōji Takada (Future War Year 198X) received a Chairperson's Award for lifetime achievement.

Actress Etsuko Ichihara (Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi, Horus - Prince of the Sun, your name.) is among the four 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 6 at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo.

Movies were eligible if they opened in Japan between December 16, 2018, and December 15, 2019.

The Animation of the Year category was only created 13 years ago. Last year, Mirai 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, In This Corner of the World, and Night is Short, Walk On Girl 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, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web