Hiroshima Animation Film Festival Grand Prix program 1 & 2

December 5, 2006

HIROSHIMA ANIMATION SPECIAL

A spotlight on one of the greatest and most respected animation festivals in the world, Hiroshima.
This special showcases winners of the Grand Prix from the past 25 years celebrating excellence
within the art form of animation. Flickerfest is honoured to be presenting this in Australia for the
first time.
Highlights include:

Pica Don
Japan/10 min/Video/78
Wri/Dir Renzo Kinoshita
An animation documentary describing the tragic consequences of the A-bomb explosion in
Hiroshima, on August 6th, 1945. The flash of the A-bomb, 100 times brighter than the sun, is
called "PICA", and the enormous shock wave which came right after the flash is called "DON". At
the time this film was completed, it was the very first attempt in the world to deal with such a
sensitive subject of Hiroshima using animation media. Because of this short film, the City of
Hiroshima decided to establish the Hiroshima International Animation Festival in 1984,
appreciating animation art as an effective medium.
Awards/festivals include: Special Prize, Annecy International Animation Festival, Outstanding Film,
London International Film Festival, Best Film, Lucca International Animation Festival, Sydney
International Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, Los Angeles International
Animation Celebration.

When the Day Breaks
Canada/9 min 40sec/Video/99
Dir Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis
Prod David Verrall
When the Day Breaks is the charming, bittersweet story of Ruby, the pig, whose life takes an
unexpected turn after she witnesses the accidental death of a stranger. With deft humour and
finely rendered detail, the film illuminates the links which connect our urban lives, while evoking
the promise and fragility of a new day.
Awards include: Palme d'Or - Short Film, Cannes 99, Grand Prix, Annecy 99, Genie Award - Best
Animated Short, Canada 99, Grand Award - Best of the Festiavl, Melbourne Intl Animation
Festival 01
WINNER HIROSHIMA 2000
Milch
USA/15 min/Video/05
Dir Igor Kovalyov
Prod Gabor Csupo, Arlene Klasky, Genrich Padva
A boy discovers love and comes face to face with the mortality of his family. The film speaks of
this through a web of oblique details, attempting to capture the flesh of relations and, perhaps,
the very tension of being.
WINNER HIROSHIMA 2006


Mount Head
Japan /10min/ Video/02
Dir Koji Yamamura
After a stingy man eats some cherry seeds, a cherry tree grows on his head and he gets into a lot
of trouble. This animated film is a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese Rakugo story
"Atama-yama" set in contemporary Tokyo.
WINNER HIROSHIMA 2004


The Cow
Russia/10 min/Video/89
Dir Alexander Petrov
In the Russian countryside, a family lives next to a railroad track. A boy remembers when he and
his parents had a cow, living off its milk and using it as a beast of burden. The cow has a calf that
the boy's father sells. The cow, perhaps grieving for its lost calf, acts strangely, bolts from the
boy, and meets with disaster. The boy dreams of calf, cow, train, and plow in a phantasmagoric
collision. Later, the boy's remembrance of things past becomes sweet and elegiac.
WINNER HIROSHIMA 1990

Page Lovelace, The Lantern Group

Contact Email Address: page@lanterngroup.com.au