The Oscar-qualifying Hiroshima Animation Season, taking place in the Japanese metro from August 14-18 this year, has revealed the competition lineup for the 2024 edition of this biennial celebration. HAS pored over 2,634 entries from 97 countries and regions this year, a big jump from the debut edition in 2022 (2,149 entries).
The selection committee consisted of festival Artistic Director Koji Yamamura, festival Co-producer Shizuka Miyazaki and animation artist Honami Yano (Nobuaki Doi, the festival’s Producer, participated as an advisor). The total of 78 films (73 shorts and five feature films) were selected, and HAS confirms almost three-quarters of the competition filmmakers/producers are going to attend the festival in person.
“There were many films we couldn’t select although they were excellent,” said Yamamura. “This year, the result of the selection reflects the prominence of films on the theme of war and refugees as well as the maturity and challenge of veteran artists, and the rise of Chinese and Taiwanese films in terms of their uniqueness and technical skills. On the technical side, the number of AI-based films has increased substantially and the selected films with this technique had unique and conscious approaches to this new way of filmmaking. We also focused on the artist’s standpoint in telling the story. In particular, for films dealing with war, the selection committee members had discussed whether the artist’s awareness of the theme was appropriate, whether it was meaningful to use such expressive techniques, and whether they had not become indulged by a sense of beauty.”
There are four competitions at HAS (for films produced between 2022 and 2024). The Short Competition consists of four thematic categories: “Contemporary Tale,” “A Slice of Society,” “Fictive World” and “Visual Poetry,” in addition to the Feature Competition, Pan-Pacific and Asia Youth Competition offering a gateway to success for young artists in the region, and the newly established the Japanese Commissioned Film Competition.
In addition, a newly established networking program will be held during the festival. Hiroshima Animation Academy & Meeting (HAM) will be held alongside HAS (from August 15-17) as a place for people from around the world to gather and collaborate. By boosting communication among festival participants, the festival aims to deepen knowledge within the industry and build new global connections.
The official competition selection films are:
Short Competition: “Contemporary Tale”
Exploring “the meaning of telling and watching stories in the contemporary age.”
- Children of the Bird (Julia Tudisco / 2024 / Hungary / 11:31)
- A Night at the Rest Area (Saki Muramoto / 2024 / Japan / 11:34)
- World to Roam (Stephen Irwin / 2023 / United Kingdom / 12:21)
- Miserable Miracle (Ryo Orikasa / 2023 / France, Japan, Canada / 8:13)
- The Role (Paolo Chianta / 2023 / United Kingdom / 5:28)
- Wander to Wonder (Nina Gantz / 2023 / Netherlands, Belgium / 13:50)
- Ship Down the Well (Chen Xi, Zhou Xiaolin / 2023 / China / 14:28)
Short Competition: “A Slice of Society”
Documentaries and social issues.
- There Are People in the Forest (Szymon Ruczynski / 2023 / Poland / 9:53)
- Butterfly (Florence Miailhe / 2024 / France / 15:00)
- All My Scars Vanish in the Wind (Angélica Restrepo, Carlos Velandia / 2022 / Colombia / 14:18)
- Mee and Burd (Greg McLeod / 2023 / United Kingdom / 7:48)
- From Our Side (Simone Massi / 2022 / 5:00)
- Dear Humans (Joo Peter / 2023 / Indonesia / 5:00)
- Beautiful Men (Nicolas Keppens / 2023 / Belgium, France / 18:53)
Short Competition: “Fictive World”
Focusing on the unique worldview that only animation can offer.
- Would Eat It If I Could (Bence Hlavay / 2023 / Hungary / 10:01)
- Compound Eyes of Tropical (Zhang Xu Zhan / 2022 / Taiwan / 17:05)
- Ruthless Blade (Zhang Bo / 2023 / China / 12:17)
- Whatever Moves Is Alive (Noémie Marsily / 2022 / Belgium / 11:05)
- La Voix des Sirènes (Gianluigi Toccafondo / 2024 / France, Italy / 19:42)
Short Competition: “Visual Poetry”
Chasing visual poetic expression.
- Two One Two (Shira Avni / 2023 / Canada / 4:12)
- From One Painting… to Another (Georges Schwizgebel / 2023 / France, Switzerland / 3:10)
- The Hour Coat (Amy Kravitz / 2022 / United States / 12:39)
- Gina Kamentskyʼs Pinocchio in 70mm (Gina Kamentsky / 2024 / United States / 3:12)
- O/S (Max Hattler / 2023 / Hong Kong, Germany / 5:00)
- The Eastern Rain (Milly Yencken / 2023 / Estonia / 9:07)
- Sing, David, Sing (David Ehrlich / 2023 / United States / 2:19)
- The Butterfly Dream (Fumio Ohi / 2024 / Japan / 6:44)
- Burning (Liu Yi / 2024 / China / 4:30)
- Croak Show (Suresh Eriyat / 2024 / India / 4:12)
- ME (Don Hertzfeldt / 2024 / United States / 22:00)
Feature Competition
- When Adam Changes (Joël Vaudreuil / 2023 / Canada / 93:30)
- Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds (Benoit Chieux / 2023 / France, Belgium / 80:00)
- White Plastic Sky (Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó / 2023 / Hungary, Slovenia / 111:00)
- The Glassworker (Usman Riaz / 2024 / Pakistan / 90:00)
Pan-Pacific and Asia Youth Competition 1
Unique three-dimensional works and strange visual experiments.
- Body of a Shadow (Anderea Munoz Alvarez / 2024 / Columbia / 11:59)
- Sewing Love (Xu Yuan / 2023 / Japan / 8:36)
- Bonem9 (Li Jian-Hua / 2023 / Taiwan / 6:15)
- Return (Chen Lindong / 2023 / Japan / 2:50)
- Wind Whisperer (Fernanda Caicedo / 2022 / Germany, Ecuador / 6:30)
- I Am a Horse (Chaerin Im / 2022 / S. Korea, Denmark / 7:58)
- me,me,me,me, (Ito Rina / 2024 / Japan / 7:44)
- Blood Machine (Xiao Wenbo / 2023 / China / 8:27)
- Skinny World (Yang Huaxu / 2023 / China / 3:14)
- Cut & (Di Liang / 2023 / United States, China / 1:47)
- Lost Letters (Kyhynngy Oyuur / 2024 / Sakha Republic [Russia], Netherlands / 12:00)
Pan-Pacific and Asia Youth Competition 2
From technological experiments and familiar events to social issues, this program echoes the diverse voices of artists living in the present.
- Hitori (ajisa / 2023 / Japan / 11:18)
- Lying Ant (Tay Jing Sy / 2023 / Singapore / 3:46)
- Vision (Çağıl Harmandar / 2023 / Japan, Turkey / 7:18)
- Friday-Fair (Luiza Alberti / 2023 / Australia / 3:49)
- Shape of the Elephant (Sam Kuwa / 2023 / Japan / 8:11)
- The Tree (Guillermo Arias / 2022 / Chile / 4:48)
- The Posthuman Hospital (Junha Kim / 2023 / S. Korea, United States / 6:54)
- Mold (Shi Shengxue / 2023 / Japan, China / 2:42)
- This Is a Story without a Plan (Cassie Shao / 2023 / United States / 7:35)
- Shallow Dream (Marina Suzuki / 2024 / Japan / 2:29)
- I See Myself a Monster (AA Cheng / 2023 / China, United States / 3:42)
- Dear Daughter (Hsu Pan Naing / 2023 / Myanmar, Germany / 12:29)
Japanese Commissioned Film Competition
- With Mother: Team of Trashes Goes Job Hunting (Mio Ueta / 2023 / Japan / 7:54)
- NHK Minnano Uta: Wakusei (Artist: Sexy Zone) (Sawako Kageyama / 2022 / 2:25)
- Dustcell: Inside (Ryoji Yamada / 2022 /3:06)
- Wi-Cocoon – Art Treat Spa (Makiko Sukikara, Kohei Matsumura / 2022 / 5:28)
- Tiny Tales: Haru-tsuge Fish and Fu-rai Boy (Takeshi Yashiro / 2023 / 5:00)
- Hoshimiya Toto+Templime: Mind Replacer (Tarafu Otani / 2024 / 1:52)
- Kitaro Expo: Specter from the Abyssal Zone! (Mirai Mizue / 2023 / 2:15)
- Pass49e: White Devil (Saya Endo / 2023 / 3:41)
- Pass49e: Music Video (Sawako Kabuki / 2023 / 1:07)
- synapusyu: Shinada one day (Haruka Hiramatsu / 2023 / 7:50)
- synapusyu: Babythoven Babbling Concerto (Yui Suzuki / 2023 / 1:30)
- Science Saru×MBS Original Short Anime Daisakusen!: Okuninushi and Sukunabikona (Akitoshi Yokoyama / 2024 / 1:30)
- Knivesrain: Be Gone (Sijia Luo / 2022 / China, Japan / 3:56)
- Garden of Remembrance (Naoko Yamada / 2022 / 17:44)
- Art Tunes!: Grande Odalisque vs Mosquite (Ryo Inoue / 2023 / 1:35)
- Time Tides (Hideki Inaba / 2023 / Japan, France / 1:40)
- Yorushika: Moonbath (Yutaro Kubo / 2023 / 4:12)
- Shuwawan!: Episode1 Saikou no Dakko (Kuniyoshi Mizuki / 2023 / 5:00)
- 0655/2355: TA.TSU.KO.TA.TSU (Dragging Dragon) (Mio Ueta, Tomoko
Kaizuka / 2024 2:23)
Editor’s note: Following the initial announcement, HAS issued a statement saying that some films selected, including the feature film Eternal Spring and the short Menagerie, had been found to not meet the entry requirements and were removed from the list.
More information available at animation.hiroshimafest.org.
