Tribute to Japanese Animation: New Motion – Directors
Japan produces hundreds of original creative animated commercial productions per year, 340 on average to be exact. From this wide selection of films emerge the works of rising directors who embody the next generation of Japanese animation.
We offer you the chance to meet these promising artists through a selection of films that range from the subtle expression of emotion in Pigtails, by Yoshimi Itazu, to Hiroko Utsumi’s daring choice in movement in BANANA FISH, by way of the skillful image composition in Hiroshi Kobayashi’s Hisone & Masotan.
"If I had to name one country with a true culture of animation, it would definitely be Japan." A seemingly obvious declaration made by French director Georges Lacroix in 1999, the year when the Annecy Festival celebrated Japanese animation for the very first time. Twenty years later the Festival pays homage to this truly singular cinematographic style through both a retrospective and a look to the future to reveal several hidden gems still relatively unknown in the West.
