Anime Anime Global

The nominees for the feature film and short film of the “Competition Category” in the international animation film festival, “Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2021”, were announced.

Every year, many amazing works from all over the world are sent to the Competition Category of “Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2021” (a.k.a. TAAF2021). This year, for the feature animations, 4 pieces of work out of the 22 (29 last year), sent from 20 countries and regions, were nominated. And for the short animations, 35 were nominated out of the 817 (1,054 last year), sent from 57 countries and regions.

The nominees for the feature animation were internationally diverse. The festival director, Takeuchi Kouji commented, “Although they are animations, they weren’t all targeted at children nor were they all sci-fi works. There were also animations that took the style of a social documentary, and the numbers of these works have been increasing worldwide in the recent 5 years. Also, the production has spread out from Japan and the U.S.A. to Southern America and Asia, and their skills are improving. The 4 nominees of the feature animation competition of TAAF2021 are works that symbolize the spread of production countries.”

On the other hand, young, upcoming talents lined up in the short film competition. Takeuchi said, “I was happy to see more works sent to the short animation competition than expected under the COVID-19 situations. Even better, I think the quality of each animation is growing every year. TAAF doesn’t separate the works by professional and amateur. Nevertheless, the students’ works are being nominated. This may be evidence of the growth of the world’s animating skills. Please enjoy the works of these young talents.”

Also, the first winner of the “Student Award”, which was newly established in “TAAF2021”, was “The Balloon Catcher” by director Kaneko Isaku from Tama Art University. The animation will be screened during the “TAAF2021”.

“Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2021” will be held at Ikebukuro, Tokyo, from March 12 to 15, 2021.
Check out the official website for details.