Ōfuji Noburō Award

The Ōfuji Noburō Award (大藤信郎賞, Ōfuji Noburō shō) is an animation award given at the Mainichi Film Awards. It is named after Japanese animator Noburō Ōfuji.

History

Following the death of pioneering animator Noburō ÅŒfuji in 1961, Mainichi established a new award in his honour to recognise animation excellence. A specialist in silhouette animation, ÅŒfuji was one of the earliest Japanese animators to gain international recognition, winning accolades at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival and the 1956 Venice Film Festival. This award was first presented in 1962 for Tale of a Street Corner (ある街è§'の物語, Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari) by Osamu Tezuka.

With the growth of the animation industry in Japan, the award in the 1980s came to be dominated by big budget studio productions, over the work of the independent animators for whose efforts it was originally established. To address this concern, the Animation Grand Award was established to reward large scale cinematic animation, enabling the ÅŒfuji award to focus on shorter pieces again. This award was first presented in 1989 for Kiki's Delivery Service (é­"女の宅急便, Majo no TakkyÅ«bin) by Hayao Miyazaki.

The award encompasses a much wider variety of animation than many western anime fans would consider. Two of the most frequent winners over the years, Tadanari Okamoto (岡本忠成, Okamoto Tadanari) and Kihachirō Kawamoto (川本喜八郎), specialize mainly in stop motion rather than cel animation. As well as being an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, The Old Man and the Sea is the winning work of Russian animator Aleksandr Petrov.

Winners

Note: Incomplete.

• 1962 - Tale of a Street Corner (ある街è§'の物語, Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari) by Osamu Tezuka
• 1963 - Wanpaku ÅŒji no Orochi Taiji
• 1979 - The Castle of Cagliostro
• 1981 - Gauche the Cellist
• 1983 - Barefoot Gen
• 1984 - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• 1985 - Night on the Galactic Railroad
• 1986 - Castle in the Sky
• 1988 - My Neighbor Totoro
• 1995 - Memories (「MEMORIES」大友克洋) by Katsuhiro ÅŒtomo
• 1996 - Rusuban(るすばã‚") by N&G Production
• 1998 - Mizu no Sei Kappa Hyakuzu (水の精河童百図) by Shirokumi
• 1999 - Rōjin to Umi - The Old Man and the Sea (「老人と海」アレクサンドル・ペトロフと技è¡"スタッフ) by Aleksandr Petrov
• 2000 - Blood: The Last Vampire by Hiroyuki Kitakubo/Production I.G
• 2001 - Kujira Tori(くじらとり) by Studio Ghibli
• 2002 - Millennium Actress (千年女優 Sennen JoyÅ«) by Satoshi Kon/Madhouse
• 2003 - Winter Days (冬の日 Fuyu no Hi)
• 2004 - Mind Game(マインド・ゲーム) by Masaaki Yuasa/Studio 4°C
• 2005 - tough guy! by Shintarō Kishimoto
• 2006 - Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート, Tekkon KinkurÄ«to) by Michael Arias/Studio 4°C
• 2007 - A Country Doctor (カフカ　ç"°èˆŽåŒ»è€…) by Kōji Yamamura
• 2008 - Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Gake no Ue no Ponyo) by Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli
• 2009 - Denshin-Bashira Elemi no Koi by Hideto Nakata/Sovat Theater
• 2010 - Not awarded
• 2011 - 663114 by Isamu Hirabayashi
• 2012 - Combustible (火要鎮) by Katsuhiro ÅŒtomo
• 2013 - The Moon That Fell Into the Sea (海に落ちた月の話) by Akira Oda
• 2014 - Crazy Little Thing (澱みのé¨'ぎ) by Onohana

References