Hiroyuki Okiura's animated feature "A Letter to Momo" won the main prize in the "Feature film" category at the 11th AniFest animation film festival in the Czech city of Teplice this month.
In addition, Atsushi Wada's "The Mechanism of Spring" won the main prize in the "Short film up to 5 minutes" category, with Mirai Mizue's "And And" receiving the same prize in the "Music videos" category.
Introduced in 2002, the AniFest is a major animation festival in the Czech Republic.
"A Letter to Momo" is a critically acclaimed anime feature produced by one of Japan's leading anime studios, Production I.G Inc. Okiura took seven years to produce the traditional hand-drawn anime, joining hands with many prominent animators in Japan.
The film has been showcased at film festivals across the globe since last year, winning the Grand Prize in the feature film category at the 16th New York International Children's Film Festival in March and the Platinum Grand Prize at the 14th Future Film Festival in April in Bologna, Italy.
It was also announced that U.S. distributor GKIDS will release "A Letter to Momo" in theaters across the United States at the end of the year.
It will also be shown at about 300 theaters in South Korea this summer, as well as at cinemas in Taiwan and Hong Kong later this year.
Wada's "The Mechanism of Spring" was also selected in the Orizzonti short film competition at the Venice International Film Festival in 2010. His "The Great Rabbit" received the Silver Bear award in the short film category at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
Abstract animation artist Mizue collaborated with Psysalia Psysalis Psyche member Toru Matsumoto to produce a music video for his solo debut song "And And."
Visit the AniFest at (http://www.anifest.cz/2012/).
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