TAAF2019] "Zombieland Saga" won the Best Picture Award and "BANANA FISH" won the Anime Fan Award! Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2019" Awards Ceremony Report

On Monday, March 11, 2019, the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2019 (TAAF2019) Awards Ceremony was held at the Toshima Ward Office Building.

At this ceremony, the winners of the "Animation Merit Category," "Animation of the Year Category," and "Competition Category" were announced in the presence of many animation-related people and the press.

Following the greeting by Kazuko Ishikawa, the executive committee chairperson, Koji Takeuchi, the festival director, took the stage. He explained again that the "Animation Merit Category," "Animation of the Year Category," and "Competition Category" have the themes of "reviewing the past," "looking at the present," and "looking ahead to the future," respectively, and finally the curtain rose on the awards ceremony.

Animation Merit Category

First, the "Animation Merit Award" was presented.

This category honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of the animation industry and culture. In addition to honoring longstanding achievements in the field of animation production in terms of technology, expression, and human resource development, the award also recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the social status of the animation industry in general through educational activities, international exchange, and other means.

The recipients of this year's awards are as follows

Kunio Okawara (Mechanical Designer)

Osamu Kobayashi (Animator)

Akiyoshi Sakai (Screenwriter)

Yoshiko Sugiyama (voice actor)

Shigeto Takahashi (Producer/Founder of the production)

Hiroki Takahashi (Director of Photography)

Nagayuki Toriumi (Director)

Tsuneo Ninomiya (Animator)

Kazuo Fukazawa (Screenwriter)

Miyako Horie (Singer)

Alphabetical order of names, titles omitted

Tsuneo Ninomiya, who took the stage on behalf of the award winners, expressed his joy, saying, "I am very happy to receive this memorable award in the last year of the Heisei era.

Animation of the Year Category

Next, the "Anime of the Year" category was announced.

The awards were determined by votes from animation fans and animation industry professionals, based on commercial works broadcast or screened in Japan during the past year. The "Animation Fan Award" is decided solely by fan votes, while the "Best Picture Award" and "Best Individual Award" are decided by votes from within the industry.

The winners and their works are as follows

Individual Award for Original Story/Screenplay: Juki Hanada

Individual Award, Director/Director: Yoshiaki Kyogoku

Individual Award for Animation: Hitomi Kariya

Individual Award for Sound and Performance: Mamoru Miyano

Anime Fan Award BANANA FISH

Television Award Zombieland Saga
　　　　　Theatrical Film Division DETECTIVE CONAN: Zero no Executioner

Individual Award for Best Director and Direction

Director Yoshiaki Kyogoku, winner of the Individual Award in the category of "Director and Direction," is one of the most notable creators of the moment, as his "Yuru Can△" received high acclaim in 2018 and the interview article published in Akiba Research Institute was a considerable hit.

Director Kyogoku took the stage and said, "(Yuru Can△) is a small production company with a small staff and a lot of young staff, and to be honest, we were not in a perfect position to make it. The work would not have been completed without the hard work of the staff. （I would like to accept this award on behalf of the staff.

Hitomi Kariya, the winner of the "Individual Award, Animator Division," is a 22-year-old rookie animator who has been chosen to create the title character for the NHK television series "Natsuzora," which will begin airing on April 1, 2019, and is a promising young talent for the next generation. The audience gave her a warm round of applause for receiving the award.

Mamoru Miyano, winner of the "Individual Award, Sound and Performance Division," received the award for his performance as Kotaro Tatsumi in "Zombieland Saga.

Competition Section

The last award was the "Competition Section. This award is given to the most outstanding animated feature or short film that is original, has a strong message, and has new possibilities.

This year, 20 feature-length films from 15 countries and regions and 773 short films of less than 30 minutes were submitted, and 4 feature-length films and 31 short films were nominated.

The award-winning works are as follows

Toshima Ward Mayor's Prize: Quintet / Director: Jie Wong / China

Best Animated Short Film Award: The Saint's Machine 6 - Forward / Directed by Josie Maris / Spain, France

Best Animated Feature Award Pachamama / Director: Fang Anting / FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, CANADA

Grand Prix for Best Animated Short Film: The Flowering Path, Age 11 / Nienke Doutz / BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS

Feature Animation Grand Prix Another Day of Life / Raul de la Fuente & Damien Nenou / Poland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Hungary

All of the films were highly artistic, all of them contained social messages, and all of them were worth seeing, but among them, the above five films won the awards.

Upon the announcement of the award-winning films, Director Takeuchi commented, "The jury members selected films that were appropriate for TAAF, understanding the pillars of TAAF's selection process: advanced, original, popular, and technical. You all selected your works without compromise, while being extremely anxious and exchanging opinions with each other," he said in his general comments on the competition section.

Finally, Mr. Masahiko Minami, Deputy Executive Committee Chairman, took the stage.

He said, "I grew up watching the animations created by all of you in the Merit Division, and now I make animations every day. In the children's workshop "Animation Aquarium," we were shown how paper and garbage bags can become one animation by moving. From stop-motion animation to hand-drawn 2D animation, which we always make, to 3DCG animation, we are able to have many forms of expression. I am glad that we are now in an age where the imagination of the creators can be delivered to the world. I hope to see you all here again next year and make this festival an enjoyable one.

The four-day TAAF2019 ended with the "Competition Grand Prix Screening" held at Shinbungeiza in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, following the awards ceremony.