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On-Gaku Anime Film Wins Award at Annecy
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced on Friday that it has awarded Kenji Iwaisawa's ON-GAKU: Our Sound film with the Best Original Music Award for a Feature Film in the festival's Special Awards Ceremony. SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) sponsored the award.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival awarded Tomohiko Banse, GRANDFUNK, and Wataru Sawabe for the film. ON-GAKU: Our Sound premiered on June 15 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The anime film adaptation of Hiroyuki Ohashi's "ON-GAKU" manga opened in Japan on January 11. GKIDS will release the film in North America this year.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced on May 18 the official selection of films that will compete at this year's event. Takashi Yamazaki's Lupin III THE FIRST and Yūta Murano's Seven Days War films had competed in the Features category, but Rémi Chayé's Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary film won the Cristal for a Feature Film award.
ON-GAKU: Our Sound and Eiji Han Shimizu's True North films had competed in the Contrechamp category, but Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen's My Favorite War film won the award.
In addition to the traditional Features category, the event added a Contrechamp category, which replaces the Out-of-Competition section, in 2019. Films in the Contrechamp category are still in competition, but the section features the "most unique feature films, as well as those that create more challenges vis-à-vis the audience."
Science SARU and Masaaki Yuasa's upcoming anime series adaptation of Sakyō Komatsu's Japan Sinks (Nihon Chinbotsu) science-fiction novel had competed in the TV Films category. Isaku Kaneko's "The Balloon Catcher" had competed in the Graduation Short Films category. Neither won their respective categories.
This year's physical Annecy International Animation Film Festival was canceled due to concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Instead, an online version of the festival is being held from June 15 to 30.
Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival. Next year's festival will be held from June 14 to 19, 2021 to celebrate the event's 60th anniversary.
Sources: Annecy International Animation Film Festival's website (link 2), Eiga Natalie
