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A Silent Voice, Masako Nozawa, Makoto Shinkai Win Japan Movie Critics Awards

The 26th Annual Japan Movie Critics Awards announced its list of winners at a ceremony on Tuesday. The winners honored films from the 2016 calendar year. Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation's A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) anime film won the Best Animation of the Year Award.

Additionally, Masako Nozawa (Dragon Ball Z) won the Best Animation Voice Actors Award for her role in Kaze no Yō ni and Makoto Shinkai won Best Animation Directors Award for his anime film your name. Leiji Matsumoto was awarded the Diamond Grand Prize in the animation category; the prize is awarded to individuals who have made great efforts to support and win fame for Japanese movies internationally.

Previous winners of Best Animation of the Year include The Boy and The Beast, Expelled from Paradise, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Wolf Children, and the Detective Conan series. Previous winners of the Best Animation Directors Awards include Masakazu Hashimoto, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Isao Takahata and Hideaki Anno. Manga creator Gō Nagai (Devilman, Mazinger Z) won the Diamond Grand Prize in the animation category last year.

Japan started hosting the awards in 1992 after seeing many other countries host similar awards. Before 2010 the awards did not include animation-specific categories. Frequent Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi won the Best Movie Music Artist Award in 2009.

Source: Mantan Web