Atsushi Wada wins Silver Bear at the Berlinale

It was been a great week forJapanese independent animation with AtsushiWada picking up the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Best Short Film for his latest work The Great Rabbit (グレットラビット, 2012) whichwas produced by the French company SacrebleuProductions.  The Jury commented:

This dreamlike film uses a unique,surreal language to tickle our unconscious while showing us the confusion ofthe modern world in animated form. Using a delicate hand drawn style, AtsushiWada decodes reality with absurd sequences of characters caught in time. (source)

The Japan Times,who have a wonderful photograph of a smiling Wada accepting the award, quotedWada as saying “I am proud to win this award. I feel relieved because I used tothink my works were rather hard to understand.” 

The film has been hand drawnframe-by-frame on paper in Wada’s signature style, which you can learn moreabout in my November2010 interview with him or in my review of his CALF DVD AtsushiWada Works 2002-2010.

Many top animators have won theSilver Bear in the past including NormanMcLaren and Evelyn Lambart in1956 for Rhythmetic, Paul Driessen in 1981 for On Land, at Sea and in the Air, and Ishu Patel in 1985 for Paradise.

Here is the official trailer for The Great Rabbit:

Isamu Hirabayashi’s beautiful animated short 663114(2011) also received a nod at the Berlinale in the Generation Section in whichthe jury is made up of eleven children and seven teenagers.  The said of 663114:

Visuals and sound melded togetherflawlessly to create a philosophical and layered masterpiece. The directorconveys his message, beyond all conventions. Through a simple metaphor heportrays the survival of a culture, even in the face of catastrophe. (source)

Hirabayashi used the platform to remind people around the world of the seriousness of thecrisis in Fukushima: "Children are being exposed to dangerousradioactivity a year after the earthquake. It is our responsibility as Japaneseadults to protect the children."

I am proud to announce that I amcurating the animation selection for NipponConnection this year.  Atsushi Wadawill be our special guest and we will have the honour of screening Hirabayashi’s663114.


You can order Atsushi Wada's DVD from CALF (JP/EN), British Animation Awards (UK), or Heeza (FR/EN)