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Summer Wars, Sky Crawlers, 1st Squad Get Asia Pacific Screen Award Nods
posted on by Egan Loo
CNN International, UNESCO, and the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) have announced the nominations for the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on Sunday. Mamoru Hosoda and Madhouse's Summer Wars, Mamoru Oshii and Production I.G's The Sky Crawlers, and Yoshiharu Ashino and Studio 4°C's First Squad - The Moment Of Truth are all vying for the award in the Best Animated Feature Film category. The Russian film Pro Fedota-Streltsa, Udalogo Molodtsa (The Tale Of Soldier Fedot, The Daring Fellow) also received a nomination in the category. The ceremony for the third annual APSA will be held on November 26 on Australia's Gold Coast.
The light-hearted "action entertainment" story of Summer Wars revolves around a modern-day family on a midsummer adventure. Hosoda won multiple awards for his earlier film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki o Kakeru Shōjo or TokiKake).The new film reunited many of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's staffers, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera (Angel, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Miyori no Mori) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, FLCL). It opened in Japan in August.
For The Sky Crawlers, Production I.G adapted Hiroshi Mori's popular novel series which launched in 2001. The war romance anime film follows ageless fighter pilots who fight in a seemingly endless war. It is the latest animated feature from the director of The Ghost in the Shell films, Mobile Police Patlabor, and Avalon. The Sky Crawlers won the Animation Film Award at the 63rd annual Mainichi Film Awards. It was nominated for, but did not win, the Animation of the Year award at the 32nd Japan Academy Prizes, the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards. It opened in Japan in August of last year.
First Squad is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. A group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities have been drafted into a special unit to fight the invading German army. Opposing them is a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead an army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause. Russian artists Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov created First Squad, and Yoshiharu Ashino (Tweeny Witches) directed the project in Japan at Studio 4°C. The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival in June and won the Kommersant newspaper's prize.
Images © 2009 Summer Wars Film Partners
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