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Letter to Momo Wins Best Animated Film at APSAs
posted on by Egan Loo
Hiroyuki Okiura and Production I.G's A Letter to Momo film won the Best Animated Feature category at the 6th Asian Pacific Screen Awards on Friday in Brisbane, Australia. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise, Appleseed) received the 2012 APSA FIAPF award for Outstanding Achievement in Film, and he performed two pieces from the films Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and The Last Emperor live at the awards ceremony.
A Letter to Momo competed for Best Animated Feature against Goro Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's From Up On Poppy Hill, Kônosuke Uda and Toei's Rainbow Fireflies (Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~), Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu's Wolf Children, and George Miller and Warner Brothers' Happy Feet Two. This is the first Japanese win in this category since Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second took home the honor in 2007.
A Letter to Momo follows a girl named Momo who struggles with her father's sudden passing and her move to the countryside. Momo finds an otherworldly surprise at her new home. This film is okiura's first return to the proverbial director's chair since Jin-Roh in 2000.
The film held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011, and it opened in Japan on April 21. The film received the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film at this year's New York International Children's Film Festival and won the main prize in the "Feature film" category at the Czech AniFest. GKIDS will release the film in theaters in 2013 to qualify for the Academy Awards that will be held in early 2014.
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