For a country that counts animation among its biggest box office hits, Japan has had little in the way of festivals dedicated to the form. Enter the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF), which staged its inaugural edition from March 17-22, screening more than 40 features and shorts from Japan and around the world.
Led by festival director Shinichiro Inoue and programme director Tadashi Sudo, the new event was sparked by growing international interest in animation from Japan as well as a dearth of festivals dedicated to these features in the country.
“Japan has festivals like Hiroshima Animation Season and the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, but they largely focus on shorts,” says Inoue, an industry veteran and former chief anime officer at Kadokawa. “NIAFF is unique in that it is centred around full-length films.”
Niigata, a port city on the Sea of Japan located about two hours by bullet train from Tokyo, was chosen for its connections to the Japanese animation industry and to reinforce the image of the city as a new centre for anime creation in Japan.
The city is known as the hometown of iconic manga artists such as Rumiko Takahashi, creator of the hugely popular InuYasha series, and the late Shinji Mizushima, whose prolific works include Dokaben. It is also the location of several universities and schools specialising in anime production, a museum dedicated to manga and anime, and branches of anime studios such as Production I.G and Eightbit.
NIAFF was timed to take place just a few days before AnimeJapan, an annual industry event held in Tokyo, and Inoue says the combination of the festival and trade show offers visitors “a culturally focused event followed by a more industry-focused one”.
That timing helped attract industry such as Eric Beckman, founder of US-based animation distributor GKids, and its president David Jesteadt, an executive producer of Oscar-nominated titles The Breadwinner and Wolfwalkers who also served on the competition jury.
International flavour
NIAFF’s first programme included a 10-strong international feature film competition, a Trend of the World section and retrospectives dedicated to Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo and the early works of Makoto Shinkai, director of Your Name and more recent box office hit Suzume. These were screened across four cinemas throughout Niigata, while the awards ceremony took place at the city’s Ryutopia Theatre.
The Grand Prix was awarded to Pierre Földes’ Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, a European adaptation of short stories written by Japan’s Haruki Murakami.
The Kabuku award, given to a film “not constrained by conventional values”, went to Khamsa – The Well Of Oblivion, directed by Algeria’s Khaled Chiheb.
The Evolve award, for a film that is not bound to production methods such as 2D, 3D or stop-motion, went to late Dutch artist and filmmaker Rosto’s Thee Wreckers Tetralogy. An honourable mention was given to Ryotaro Makihara’s Vampire In The Garden: The Movie – the only Japanese title in the competition line-up.
Mamoru Oshii, director of the seminal and influential Ghost In The Shell, served as NIAFF’s inaugural jury president. His involvement was announced at the launch of the festival in Cannes last year and proved a coup for the event, earning it widespread attention. Khamsa director Chiheb (also known as Vynom) cited Oshii’s participation as the reason he submitted his film to the new festival, pointing to Angel’s Egg as a “huge influence” on his award-winning feature.
NIAFF opened with two shorts from upcoming omnibus film project Taisu directed by Shuhei Morita (Tokyo Ghoul) and Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop), both of whom were on hand for a post-screening discussion.
Further highlights included the debut of Nezumikozo Jirokichi, the first project in over a decade from Metropolis director Rintaro, plus stage appearances by Japanese animation legends Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire), Sunao Katabuchi (In This Corner Of The World) and jury president Oshii.
Looking to the future, festival director Inoue says he hopes the event will give Japanese audiences the opportunity to explore animation from outside their home country, where local titles outstrip high-profile features from major studios such as Disney and Pixar.
On a practical level, Inoue adds that the lack of new Japanese films at NIAFF was also due to the nature of the country’s industry, where animated features are often completed just weeks or days before their release in cinemas.
“That makes premiering Japanese films a challenge,” says Inoue. “But hopefully, as NIAFF’s reputation grows, more studios will attempt to complete their films in time to premiere at our festival.”
Premiered Jun 6, 2022, The official trailer of the animated feature film « KHAMSA – the Well of Oblivion ».
[Subtitles available]
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/khamsaanime/
https://www.instagram.com/khamsa_anime/
Director, Vynom
Producers (D-clik Production)
Kamal Mouhoune
Khaled Boumriche
Yacine Chila
International sales
Malek Ali Yahia
Virginie Mallet
– DAMIA FILMS –
Art director Kamal Zakour
Music composer & sound designer Tobias Lilja
Lead voice actress Dima Tourgane
——————————–
Mise En Scène Department 1st Assistant Director Kenza Mehadji
Film adapted from the short film script by
Vynom
Kamal Zakour
Messaoud Rouag
Screenplay Vynom
Script Doctors
Abir Gasmi
Kamal Mouhoune
Kenza Mehadji
Casting Mounes Khemmar
——————————–
Production Department
Production Manager, Kamal Mouhoune
Production coordinator & logistic, Khaled Boumriche
Production Assistant, Kenza Mehadji
——————————–
Visual Art Department
Production design and animation studio, D-clik
Concept art,
Kamal Zakour
Vynom
Lead Animation – Editing – Character design – Storyboard – Compositing, Vynom
3D modeling – Additional animations, Sofiane Baroudi
Background digital painting
Kamal Zakour
Toufik Mebarki (Darko)
Mohammed El Amine Benali
Vynom
Additional Illustration
Vynom
Faiza Benaouda (Fez)
——————————–
Render farm, Rendily
Render engineer, Alaedine Fadel
——————————–
Audio Department
Cast
Adi – Tidar – The mother – Khamsa , Dima Tourgane
Khamsa, Tobias Lilja
Shaman, Kenza Mehadji
Gatekeeper, Yacine Chila
Additional Voices
Elias Ayoub
Mohamed Selama
Billel Berkane
Billel Aklouf
Abderahmane Hakimi
Yacine Touzouti
Voice Acting Director, Vynom
Voice Directing, Dima Tourgane
Music recording and mixing studio
Studio Möllan
Mixing, Tobias Lilja
Dialogue Recoding studio, Tourgane Production
Additional voices recording studio, DB-Pro
Additional voices recordist, Mohamed Amine Teggar
Place holder voice recording studio, Atyaf
Place holder voice recordist, Mohammed Ilyes Guetal
——————————–
Distribution & Public relation
International sales
Malek Ali Yahia
Virginie Mallet
PR manager, Reda Zinedine Ghebbi
Social Media management & Communication
Reda Zinedine Ghebbi
Mohamed El-Habib Baba Ali
——————————–
Localisation
Translation French/Arabic
Meriem Mehadji
Abir Gasmi
Houssam Djeghim
Translation French/English
Kamal Mouhoune
Vynom
Abir Gasmi
Kenza Mehadji
Arabic Script Dialogue Editing and Proofreading, Tourgane Production
English Dialogues Proofreading, Claire Blatchley
French Dialogues Proofreading, Kamal Mouhoune
The production thanks
The Algerian Ministry of Culture and Arts
The Direction of development and promotion of arts – Ministry of culture and arts
And
the French Institute of Algeria
Ahlem GHARBI
General Director of the French Institut – Algeria
Patrick GIRARD
Cultural and audiovisual attaché
Pierre BLOUIN-HULIN
Cultural and audio-visual mission head
Philippe MONESTES
Director of the French Institut – Algiers
Abdenour HOCHICHE
Cinema mission head
——————————–
Thanks to
Tarek el Arbi Torgane, Tala Torgane, Patrick Eveno, Bertrand Furic, Timothée Bost, Mohamed Amine Teggar, Mounes Khemmar, Hatem Siraj, Nadir Slimane, Laurent Million, Stéphanie Launay, Anna Moberg, Emil Isaksson, Nassim El Mounabih, Serge Zitoune, Reda Mourah, Younes Bahri, Marco Cravero, Mehdi Ramdani, Bill Laurence, Mike Chadwick, Alex Roe, Alaedine Fadel, Fayçal Hammoum, Khadidja Briha, Olivier Cousin, Abdeladim Mehadji Zineb, Redouane Mehadji, Fares Mehadji, Houria Boulahbel, Saad Al Shahrani, Thinhinane Sahra Berkane, Lynda Morsli, Mohamed Benmeddour, Fouad & Sarah Trifi, Walid Trifi, Cherif Medjaoui, Romano Consolini, Smail Mesbah, Karim Ferahi, Jordi Ayguasenosa Jara, Samy Facih, Mahfoud Yacef, Meriem Benyagoub, Nabil Rouag, ganzatronique, Hamza Djabella, Khouloud Bougacha, Hamid Saidani, Kenza Ladoul, Kamel Brahim, Khalil Bensalem, Tarik Redjimi, Abderraouf Bey, Raouf Rezki, Rayane Ali Kechekar, Hchicha, Malika.
Special thanks, Poupch
in memory of
Boumriche Rabah
Chiheb Ammar
Mehadji Djamel Eddine
Souissi Nazim
Zakour Abderrahmane
——————————–
D-clik Production Thanks the Studios
Studio MOLLAN
Lilja Musikproduktion
Tourgane Production
Cinecom
dbPro
Atyaf
Rendily
——————————–
With the support of Fonds National pour le Développement de l’Art, et de la Technique et de l’Industrie Cinématographique et de la Promotion des Arts et des Lettres
And the help of Institut Français Algérie
presented by DAMIA Films
produced by D-clik Production
——————————-
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
