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Ghibli's Princess Kaguya Nominated for APSA's Best Animated Film
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced the nominees for the eighth Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on Tuesday. Studio Ghibli and Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. It is competing against China's Frog Kingdom (Quingwa Wangguo), Australia and Germany's Maya the Bee', and South Korea's On The White Planet (Chang-Baek-Han Eol-Gul-Deul) and The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow (Woo-Ri-Byul Il-Ho-Wa Ul-Ruk-So).
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is the only Japanese film nominated for an award.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) held the film's North American premiere on September 8. The Fantastic Fest in Texas then hosted the United States premiere, and it gave the movie the Audience Award on September 23.
TIFF describes the story from Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko):
Okina (voiced by Takeo Chii) is a bamboo cutter in ancient rural Japan. One day in the forest, he finds a tiny baby in the folds of a bamboo shoot. He brings the creature home to his wife Ounaa (Nobuko Miyamoto) and they decide to keep her and raise her as a princess. She is clearly not of this world. Kaguya (Aki Asakura) grows at an unnatural rate, soon maturing into an uncommonly beautiful young woman. Since Okina has now also found a cache of gold and treasure in the forest, every suitor wants Kaguya. But this is not a fairytale of courtship and marriage. True to the Studio Ghibli that brought us Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya follows this strange young female as she creates her own identity.
Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, The 5th Wave) stars as the title character in the English dub. The cast also includes James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt and Dean Cain.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is based on the famous Japanese folktale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), which centers on a princess named Kaguya who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. The film won the Animation Film Award at the 68th Mainichi Film Awards. The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight but did not receive any awards.
The film is currently playing in theaters across North America. The film earned US$143,432 in its second week after opening at the IFC Center in New York City, ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, and TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto earlier this month.
The APSA ceremony will be held in Brisbane, Australia on December 11.
