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Montreal's Fantasia Fest to Present Satoshi Kon Award
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
KON'STONE, the company of the late Satoshi Kon, and the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal revealed on Friday that the festival is renaming its animation jury prize as The Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation starting with this year's event. Kon's Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress films had held their world premieres at the festival in 1997 and 2001, respectively.
The Festival also revealed that it will screen Keiichi Satou's (Tiger & Bunny, Karas) and Toei's feature film adaptation of George Akiyama's 1970-1971 Asura manga. The festival will also screen Takashi Miike's Ace Attorney live-action film and the live-action film adaptation of Masaharu Noritsuke's Afro Tanaka comedy manga directed by Daigo Matsui.
The unrelentingly dark drama of Asura follows the struggles of a child during a famine in medieval Japan. His mother was so impoverished and starved that she tried to eat Asura at the beginning of the story. Asura stars Masako Nozawa, Megumi Hayashibara, Kinya Kitaoji, Kappei Yamaguchi, and Tesshô Genda. The film will open in Japan in August.
Shota Matsuda (Liar Game, Hana Yori Dango [2005]) stars in Afro Tanaka as an odd, Afro-haired young man named Hiroshi Tanaka who faces his greatest challenge at the age of 24: his first potential girlfriend (live-action Sazae-san special and Kaitō Royale's Nozomi Sasaki). The film opened in Japan in February.
The festival previously announced it will screen the Blood-C: The Last Dark anime film.
The 2012 Fantasia International Film Festival will take place from July 19 to August 7.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.
[Via Twitch]
