December 3, 2010

Shinsuke Sato's CGI animated feature film Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror received the Jury's First Mention in the Feature Film Category at the 4th annual Expotoons International Animation Festival, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from November 30 to December 2, 2010. The screening at Expotoons marked the movie's Latin American premiere.

Expotoons is the most representative animation festival in the region. A reference for the whole industry: professionals, creative people, producers, animation artists, communication studies, advertising agencies, TV channels, technology companies, animation schools, suppliers and students. Its objective is to spread animation as a growth engine for cultural and audiovisual industry, creating a space for exchanging trends, technology, knowledge, artistic proposals and experiences from different countries.

Message from Naoyoshi Shiotani
First of all, let me say that the staff here at Production I.G is really excited about the awesome news coming from the other side of the planet!

This movie, Oblivion Island takes inspiration from an old folk lore of the Japanese countryside. The story revolves around Haruka, a 16-year-old ordinary girl who is in the middle of the awkward transition from childhood to adulthood, and who experiences an unforgettable adventure in an amazing world beyond imagination.
What we carefully tried to portray with this story was the way we treat and behave towards objects and people around us. It's an attitude that in my country is described as compassion, or consideration and kindness towards your fellow, and it's been highly regarded in Japanese society since old times.

Therefore, I'm deeply impressed and overjoyed in realizing that the message we crafted inside our movie was so well received by our friends in Buenos Aires, which is so far away from Tokyo.

On behalf of all the people who spent four hard years of their lives to make this movie possible, please allow me to say a big thank you from the deep of my heart for this great honour that you have awarded to our work today. Thank you very much to all of you! Gracias!

PS: And don't worry, the memory of this day will never fade away and be brought on the island by Teo and his fellow islanders!

Naoyoshi Shiotani
(Animation Director, Storyboard Artist, Cotton Designer and Island Concept Designer for Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror)

Expotoons 2010 official website:
http://www.expotoons.com/

© 2009 FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK / Production I.G / DENTSU / PONY CANYON