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Blood-C: The Last Dark Wins Jury Award at Fantasia Film Fest
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal announced on Friday that Production I.G and CLAMP's Blood-C: The Last Dark won the L'Écran Fantastique Prize at this year's festival. The film won the jury prize for its "horrifying Lovecraftian bestiary, as well as attention to textures and lighting."
Additionally, Takashi Miike's Ace Attorney, Toei Animation and Keiichi Satou's Asura, and Production I.G and Hiroyuki Okiura's A Letter to Momo films all won audience awards.
Takashii Mike's live-action Ace Attorney film won the gold prize in the Audience Award for Best Asian Feature. The film adapts CAPCOM's Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) video game franchise. The film takes place in a parallel world in Japan, where a large increase in harsh crimes has led to a new court system. Under this new system, the defense attorney and public prosecutor have three days to battle cases out in open court to determine guilt or innocence of the accused, placing priority on speed instead of thorough investigation.
Asura and A Letter to Momo tied for the Audience Award in the Best Animated Feature category. The unrelentingly dark drama of Asura follows the struggles of a child during a famine in medieval Japan. His mother was so impoverished and starved that she tried to eat Asura at the beginning of the story. A Letter to Momo follows a girl named Momo who struggles with her father's sudden passing and her move to the countryside. Momo finds an otherworldly surprise at her new home.
The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation went to Yeon Sang-ho's The King of Pigs. The festival renamed its animation jury prize as The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation starting with this year's event.
Other films screened at the festival included Takashi Miike's For Love's Sake (Ai to Makoto), Makoto Shinkai's Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, Takayuki Hirao's GYO: Tokyo Fish Attack, Shinji Aramaki's Starship Troopers: Invasion, Daigo Matsui's Afro Tanaka, Toshiyuki Kubooka's Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I – The Egg of the King, Takashi Yamazaki's live-action Space Battleship Yamato film, and Katsuhito Ishii's live-action Smuggler film.
The 2012 Fantasia International Film Festival took place from July 19 to August 7.
