Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s Look Back won the grand prix at the third Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) on Thursday (March 20).
The award was presented to the director on the final night of the festival, which ran from March 15-20 in Niigata, a port city two hours north of Tokyo.
Oshiyama, who was also honoured with the Koji Fukiya prize for his work as an animator, highlighted the importance of hand-made animation during his acceptance speech. “While animating the film, I kept hearing that AI would soon be able to create entire works of animation, which made me nervous,” he said.
“We created Look Back by hand, but that’s something that is going to become more difficult, so the film is like a souvenir of our current times. At the same time, the whole process and history of anime with human hands will only become more valuable from now on, and that value will never be lost.”
Seville European Film Festival director Manuel Cristobal, who served as president of the jury, described Look Back as “perfectly paced with beautifully rendered characters.”
The film recently took home the best animation prize at the Japan Academy Awards on March 14, and was Japan’s highest-grossing non-franchise anime film of 2024.
Based on a manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), the story follows two young artists with very different personalities who team up to create a hit manga until tragedy strikes. It marks the feature directorial debut of Oshiyama, who previously worked as an animator on Studio Ghibli features such as The Boy And The Heron, and premiered at Annecy.
Despite an initial mid-sized release in Japan last year, it went on to rank among the top 20 box office hits in the country.
Further awards
The winner of the festival’s Kabuku award, given to a work “that is not constrained by conventional values,” went to Memoir Of A Snail, by Australian director Adam Elliot. The film previously won best film at Annecy and was nominated for an Oscar. Elliot also touched on AI’s looming presence and said: “I think the best art will always be created by human beings.”
The festival’s Evolve award went to Italy’s Balentes, directed by Giovanni Columbu, while the honourable mention award went to US director Eric Power’s Papercuts: My Life As An Indie Animator. Power is the festival’s first repeat director, his When You Get To The Forest having played at the inaugural NIAFF in 2023.
The competition section featured 12 features from 10 countries chosen from a total of 69 entries from 29 countries. Cristobal’s fellow jurors were artist and educator Christine Panushka and Dwarf Studios producer Noriko Matsumoto.
The festival’s Hiroshi Okawa and Koji Fukiya awards, named after pioneers of Japanese animation born in Niigata, were announced prior to the festival and awarded March 20.
The Hiroshi Okada award went to Japanese studio Shin-Ei Animation, best known for its long-running Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan franchises. The Koji Fukiya prize was awarded to four individuals: director and animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama (Look Back), animator Toshiyuki Inoue (Tokyo Godfathers), audio director Eriko Kimura (The Colors Within) and composer Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia).
During the award ceremony, it was announced NIAFF will shift a month earlier for its fourth edition and will take place from February 20-26, 2026.
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