Image via the website of the cartoon Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
© 黒柳徹子／2023 映画 「窓ぎわのトットちゃん」製作委員会
This year's Annecy International Animation Festival announced its winners on Saturday, and Totto-Chan: The Girl at the Window (Madoigwa no Totto-chan) won the Paul Grimault Award for feature film.
Adam Elliot's stop-motion film Memoirs of a Snail from Australia won the top Cristal Award for Feature Film. Gintz Zilbalodis' Latvia-Belgium-France co-production Flow won the Jury Award, the Liver Foundation Award for Distribution, the Audience Award and the Best Original Music Award for a Feature Film.
Other anime competing in the feature film category include Ghost Cat Anzu, The Colors Inside and The Imaginary.
The anime film The Birth of Kitarō: The Mystery of Gegege (Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo) competed in the Contrechamp Feature Film category, but Living Large won.
Pokémon Concierge and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead competed in the Drama category but neither won the award.
“Kawauso” and “Miserable Miracle” by Akihito Izuhara — a joint production between studios from Japan, France and Canada — competed in the Short Film category, but did not win the award.
“Yapolaponky” by Masataka Kihara and “Return” by Lindong Chen competed in the Graduation Film category but did not win any awards.
The short film “My Inner Ear” by Oscar-nominated director Koji Yamamura Quartet” competed in the VR Work category.”Gargoyle Doyle” won the Cristal Award for Best VR Work.
Totto-Chan: The Girl at the Window is an anime film by Shinei Animation based on the autobiographical memoir Madoigwa no Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. The film opens in Japan on December 8. Kuroyanagi's memoir tells the story of going to school at Tomoe Gakuen, after failing to fit in at her original elementary school. She meets special students and learns new things at school, even as Japan falls into war. Kuroyanagi published the book in Japan in 1981 and became a bestseller the next year. It became required reading for Japanese elementary school students in the 1980s and was also translated into English and many other languages worldwide.
Last year, Tomohisa Taguchi's animated film The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes by Mei Hachimoku and Kukka, the young adult novel Sayonara no Deguchi, won the Paul Grimault Award.
This year's Annecy takes place from June 9 to 15 in the French town of the same name. Founded in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation festival.
Next year, the country honored to host the festival will be Hungary.
Source: Annecy, Variety (Jamie Lang)
