Irish animated film ‘Song of the Sea’ has continued an impressive awards season by winning the Grand Prize in the feature film category at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2015.
At the award ceremony, Hiromi Seki, Planning and Development Supervisor, Toei Animation Planning and Sales Department who was a member of the jury, commented on the jury's decision to award the Grand Prize in the Feature Film to ‘Song of the Sea’.
He said: ‘While embodying a mythological Irish motif, the story incorporates a strong theme about rebuilding/restructuring families that connects widely with this modern generation. The entire jury also felt the art direction and music was successful in providing an absolutely “extraordinary” balance in the film. It may have just been me, but this is the first time in a long time a film has truly made me cry.’
The Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2015 (TAAF2015) is an international animation film festival that aims to promote animation and was held from March 19th to March 23rd.
The acclaimed ‘Song of the Sea’– which was made with development and production support from the Irish Film Board (IFB), is produced by Cartoon Saloon and features the voice talents of Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan and Lisa Hannigan –has had a busy awards season getting nominated for an Oscar, seven Annie Awards and a Cesar Award for Best Animated Film as well as winning a Satellite Award.
The film’s director Tomm Moore was also last week awarded the inaugural Murakami Award at Animation Dingle.
‘Song of the Sea’ will be released to Irish cinemas on July 10, 2015.