6th Okinawa International Movie Festival

The Closing Ceremony of the 6^th Okinawa International Movie Festival closed 24 March with winners from local municipalities, national producers, as well as productions from abroad. MC’ed by comedy duo Garage Sale and Ayako Kisa, the ceremony opened with a blaze of lights, followed by a speech by Okinawa Vice Governor Takara Kurayoshi, who praised the festival’s “Community wide effort and local based community films.”

Atsushi Sakima, Mayor of Ginowan City, said that the event was“abounding with laughter and moving moments – the best festival ever. I hope to see smiling faces next year and for many years to follow.”

 

Masataka Izumi of Yoshimoto Kogyo gave the first award of the night for the 4^th JIMOT CM Competition, which focuses on local culture and this year was dedicated to food. 46 Prefectures of Japan competed, as did 41 municipalities of Okinawa. “Re:born.K” from Kagawa prefecture took home the prize for 470,000 Yen as well as a trophy. The Grand Prix for Okinawa went to Yasuhiro Nishikawa of Zamami Village in Okinawa, who also won 410,000 Yen.

 

The Creator’s Factor Grand Prix, aimed at “promising talents who can become leaders for the new generation, with twice the number of entries”, according to producer Kazuyoshi Okuyama, went to “Inabe” by Koji Fukada. It was presented by actor Istuji Itao in his trademark white suit, and model Anju. The film was broadcast last year in the Community-Based Movie section as the representative from Mie prefecture, and was selected from 10 entries.
 

The TV Director’s Movie, a new category developed in collaboration with TV stations in Japan, featured three awards, for best movie, actor and actress, with the TV movies going in to theaters after the festival. The award for Best Movie went to documentary “Love Session,” a story in which musicians offer to play sessions with other musicians that they idolize, and directed by Eiji Itaya for Fuji Television. Kazuyoshi Okuyama announced Shidou Nakamura as Best Actor and Manami Konishi as Best Actress.

 

The Uminchi Grand Prize for the Laugh Category of the Competition section was awarded to “Ultrafast! Sankinkotai!” by Motoki Katsuhide. The Peace Category Prize meanwhile was awarded to Korean movie “Miss Granny,” by Hwang Dong-Hyeok, who took to the stage and announced his surprise whilst joking that “the award ceremony was getting long and I was getting bored!”

Actress Sim Eun-Kyeong, the lead actress from “Miss Granny” who plays a woman in her 70s living in the body of her 20-year-old self, said “This was very unexpected, I look forward to going back to Korea to share the joy!”

Both movies were awarded one million yen, as well as the Uminchu trophies.
 
 

The special jury prize known as the Golden Shisa Award, the most important award of the night, was selected by a jury headed by director Sadao Nakajima. Hiroshi Shinagawa’s action comedy “One Third” took home the prestigious award, and Shinagawa accepted it from jury member and producer Yoko Narahashi.

Sadao Nakajima told the audience that the diverse nature of the films made selecting a winner a challenge, and the jury had different opinions, before finally deciding that the “energy and power” of “One Third” was deserving of the festival’s highest accolade.