Award Winners

Critics’ Award

Each year our panel of judges, all industry professionals, honours the best film at each venue.

Audience Award

The audiences at each venue vote for their favourite film.

Millennium Actress

Directors: Satoshi Kon & Kô Matsuo

Cardiff Critics’ Award Best Film 2024

The Concierge

Director: Yoshimi Itazu

Cardiff Audience Award Best Film 2024
Aberystwyth Critics’ Award Best Film 2024

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Aberystwyth Audience Award Best Film 2024

HIDARI

Directors: Masashi Kawamura | Iku Ogawa

Cardiff Audience Award Best Short Film 2024

「観客賞」ありがとうございます！まだパイロットフィルムの状態にもかかわらず、作品を高く評価していただけてとても嬉しいです。今まさにこの映像と出来上がったばかりの脚本を使って長編映画化を目指して絶賛活動中です。是非今後とも皆様に応援していただけたら嬉しいです！
川村真司（監督）
Thanks so much for the Audience Award! I’m super happy that this project is getting so much love, even as a pilot film. Right now, we’re working full steam ahead to turn this into a full-length movie using the footage and our freshly finished script. I’d really appreciate your support as we keep pushing forward!

Masashi Kawamura (Director)

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こたつ日本アニメーション映画祭、そして観客の皆様ありがとうございます！
この度は観客賞を頂きとても嬉しく思います。しかし本当のHIDARIはこれから始まります。長編映画を目指して頑張ってまいりますので、これからも応援いただければ幸いです。
小川育（共同監督）

Thank you very much Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival and everyone in the audience! I’m so glad to receive the audience award. But this short film is just the beginning. We’ve been doing our best to make a feature film of HIDARI, so keep eyes on us!

Iku Ogawa (Co-Director)

A Bite of Bone

Director: Honami Yano

Cardiff Critics’ Award Best Short Film 2024

この度は、Kotatsu映画祭にて審査員特別賞をいただき、心より感謝申し上げます。NEW CHITOSEセレクションに参加できただけでも大変光栄でしたが、このような素晴らしい評価をいただけるとは思ってもいませんでした。
審査員の皆様、映画祭の関係者の皆様、そして作品をご覧いただいた全ての方に深く感謝いたします。
本作は、日本に点在する風習の一つである、火葬後に遺骨を口にすることで故人を自らの一部として取り込み、悲しみや苦しみを乗り越えようとする「骨嚙み」を扱っています。死者たちの面影は、過去も現在も同じ時空に共存しており、本作を通して、嚙むことのできなかった骨との対峙をテーマにしました。
これからも、作品を通じて、皆様と経験や物語を共有できる作品を作り続けたいと思っています。本当にありがとうございました。

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for receiving the Critics Award at this year’s Kotatsu Film Festival. Being part of the New Chitose Selection was a great honour in itself, and I never imagined that my film would receive such a wonderful award.
I am truly grateful to the judges, the festival organisers, and everyone who came to watch my film.
This film depicts honekami (bone-biting), a tradition that is practised in certain parts across Japan, in which mourners will take the bones left after cremation into their mouths. In this way, their lost loved one becomes a part of them, which helps them to overcome their sadness and grief. The vestiges of the departed exist simultaneously in one space shared between the past and present, and the main theme of this film is my confrontation with the bones that I wasn’t able to take into my mouth.
I hope to continue creating works that allow me to share my experiences and stories with everyone. Thank you so much.

Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns

The First Slam Dunk

Director: Takehiko Inoue

Cardiff Audience Award Best Film 2023
Aberystwyth Audience Award Best Film 2023
Bangor Audience Award Best Film 2023 (Joint winner)
Aberystwyth Critics’ Award Best Film 2023

Patema Inverted

Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura

Bangor Audience Award Best Film 2023 (Joint winner)

Miss Hokusai

Director: Keiichi Hara

Cardiff Critics’ Award Best Film 2023

Blue Thermal

Director: Masaki Tachibana

Bangor Critics’ Award Best Film 2023

Inu-Oh

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Cardiff Critics’ Award Best Film 2022
Cardiff Audience Award Best Film 2022
Aberystwyth Audience Award Best Film 2022

Chapterでの批評家賞と、ChapterおよびAberystwythでの観客賞をいただいたと聞き、とても感激しています！！

「犬王」は日本の昔の話で、理解が難しい部分もありますが、ああいう出来事や人々はどこにでもあったと思います。ウェールズの皆さんにも支持していただいて大変嬉しいです。

ありがとうございました！！

I am very excited about the news that ”INU-OH” received the Critics Award at Chapter and the Audience Award at Chapter and Aberystwyth!!

”INU-OH” is a story which takes place in old Japan, and although some parts of this film must be difficult to understand, these kind of events and people could have happened or existed everywhere. I am very happy that the people of Wales appreciated this title.

Thank you very much!!

The House of the Lost on the Cape

Director: Shinya Kawatsura

Aberystwyth Critics’ Award Best Film 2022

コタツ日本アニメーションフェスティバルでの受賞とても嬉しいです！

この作品は2011年3月に起こった東日本大震災から数ヶ月後の小さな町でのお話です。

あまりに大きな震災は、日本人に強烈な印象を残しました。そのためそのことについてはほとんどセリフにしていません。絵を見れば充分以上にわかるからです。

こういう言葉少ない作品が遠くイギリスの皆さんにどう伝わるかとても楽しみです。ささやかな出会いのお話しでもあり、少しでも癒される時間でもありたいと思って作りました。いつかウェールズにも行ってみたいです。ありがとうございました！

I am so glad to receive an award at the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival.

This film is a story in a small town, a couple months after the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened in March, 2011.

This enormous earthquake disaster left a strong impression on the Japanese. Therefore I hardly wrote any dialogue about it. Simply because if you see the images you can understand more than enough.

I am very much looking forward to knowing how this film with less dialogue reaches the British audience.

It was a story about small encounters, and I made this film hoping,  it will also be the time for people to heal even a little.

I would love to go to Wales one day. Thank you very much.

Junk Head

Director: Takahide Hori

Bangor Critics’ Award Best Film 2022

イギリスでの受賞とても嬉しいです。
制作当時はこういったニッチな作風は一般受けはしないだろうと思っていたのですが、いざ公開されると多くの方に評価を受け自分でもびっくりしました。
更にこうやって海外の人にも受け入れられて大きな自信になっています。
現在続編を制作中なのでまた多くの人に見て頂けるよう頑張ります。

I am very glad to receive an award in the UK. When I was making it (Junk Head), I thought this kind of niche style may not be generally accepted. I am surprised that when this film was released, many people received it positively. Additionally the fact my film has been accepted by people overseas has given me great confidence. I am currently working on a sequel so I’ll do my best, and hopefully again my film will be watched by many people.

On-Gaku

Director: Kenji Iwaisawa

Cardiff Critics’ Award Best Film 2021
Cardiff Audience Award Best Film 2021

Children Of The Sea

Director: Ayumu Watanabe

Aberystwyth Critics’ Award Best Film 2021

On hearing that I was going to receive this wonderful award, I found myself jumping out of my own kotatsu in amazement and excitement! Wales is a place that I have always longed to visit. I am delighted that Children of the Sea was screened there, and hope it helped the festival audience to experience the richness of anime. Sharing warmth [with a kotatsu] and sharing emotions with the genre of anime… what a wonderful match! When I was a student, I used to put the kotatsu on my futon and slept there, so I have a very strong attachment to it. All our staff members are very proud to become a part of the history of the Kotatsu Festival.Thank you very much! I wish the festival’s continued success!

Josée, The Tiger and The Fish

Director: Kotaro Tamura

Aberystwyth Audience Award Best Film 2021

I heard that the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival is celebrating its 11^th Anniversary and this is the first year it has conferred awards. And our anime film, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, was voted to win the first audience award. I am truly honoured. This was a story expanded from the novel written by Seiko Tanabe in 1984. By adapting it into a film, it has transcended time, borders, and reached to the hearts of the people in Wales, which is amazing. All the staff members are delighted to have been part of this event.Thank you again to those who voted for this film. If you ever face a setback, do remember the smiles of Josee and Tsuneo. May the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival have many more successful years to come.