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Keiichi Hara's Colorful Anime Film Wins 2 at Annecy Fest
posted on by Egan Loo
Keiichi Hara and Sunrise's Colorful anime film won the Mention spéciale (Special Distinction) and the Prix du public (Audience Award) in the Feature Film category at France's Annecy, the world's largest animation film festival, on Saturday. It has been four years since Mamoru Hosoda won the festival's Special Prize in the Feature Film category for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
In the "heart-warming" story of Eto Mori's original Colorful novel for young adults and Hara's film adaptation, a person finds himself trapped outside the normal endless circle of life and death. Thanks to winning a lottery in the angel world, the protagonist is brought back to inhabit the body of a 14-year-old boy — who just committed suicide. Thus, the protagonist begins a new life.
The film had previously won the Best Animation Film Award at 65th Mainichi Film Awards. Colorful was competing against Masayuki Kojima and Madhouse's Tibetan Dog film at Annecy. The festival also screened Jun Takagi's Rita et Machin (Rita and Whatsit) anime series and Masaki Yokobe's "Christmas" music video in competition, as well as Kōzō Morishita's Tezuka Osamu no Buddha - Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku- film, Takeuchi Taijin's "Sakana ni ni ta uta" short, and Toei Animation's preview of its recent Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Albator - Space Pirate) remake project out of competition.
Source: Annecy via Tadashi Sudo
Image © 2010 Eto Mori/Colorful Production Committee
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