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Summit of the Gods Wins César Award for Best Animated Feature
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma announced the winners of its 47th César Awards on Friday. The France-Luxembourg animated film based on Jiro Taniguchi's The Summit of the Gods (Kamigami no Itadaki) manga won the award for the Best Animated Feature.
Netflix has the worldwide rights to the film outside of France, Benelux, China, Japan, and Korea. Netflix released the film in select U.S. theaters on November 24 and in select U.K. theaters on November 26. The film then streamed on Netflix on November 30.
The film screened in July at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Official Selection, and opened in theaters in France on September 22 under the title Le Sommet des dieux. The film also opened the Animation Is Film Festival in Los Angeles on October 22. The movie won in the Best Animation Film category at France's Lumières International Press Awards in January.
Patrick Imbert (Ernest & Celestine) directed the film, and Magali Pouzol and Imbert wrote the script with Jean-Charles Ostoréro collaborating. David Coquard-Dassault (Peripheria) was the film's art director. Amine Bouhafa composed the music. Diaphana Distribution is distributing the film in France, while Wild Bunch International has the international rights. Didier Brunner (The Triplets of Belleville, Kirikou and the Sorceress) produced the film. Cartoon Brew describes the film as a 2D/3D hybrid.
The manga is itself an adaptation of Baku Yumemakura's novel. The story follows Fukamachi, an avid wilderness photographer who discovers a link to the past in Kathmandu, Nepal. He finds a camera supposedly belonging to George Mallory, a mountaineer who went missing on Mt. Everest. After meeting Joji Habu, a well-known climber with a passionate drive for the mountain, the two set off to uncover a piece of lost history.
The series ran in Shueisha's Business Jump, and European company Fanfare / Ponent Mon publishes the manga in English. Taniguchi passed away on February 11, 2017.
Source: Deadline (Nancy Tartaglione)
