On December 15th 2009, The Award Ceremony for the 6th CON-CAN Movie Festival was held at Okuma lecture hall of Waseda University (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo).This year for our 6th festival, we received submissions from 64 countries around the world counting up to over 600 films which is the largest number ever. At the ceremony we were able to invite 3 award winning directors who won through the tough competition. Also, thanks to association of Kouhei Ando Research Office, many film professionals including Director Isshin Inudou(director of “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish”, “La maison de Himiko”, “Gu Gu the Cat”) were present at the event. In a genial atmosphere, screenings of the 4 winning films and the Award Ceremony was held.
After the screening, a talk session was hosted by Professor Kouhei Ando as MC, with the winner of the Grand Prix Award film "Fleeting Images" director Edmund Yeo,CON-CAN Special Jury Award winner director Monica Gallab “Nice day for a picnic", and director Takashi Nishihara, winner of the Best Picture Award for the Fiction category "Jun and Ema". The audience enjoyed the discussion between the award winning film-makers as well as their episodes of film production. Unfortunately, director Huaqing Jin, winner of the Best Picture Award for the Documentary category “wa quan (Living with Shame) “, could not attend the ceremony, but he sent us his video message for the ceremony and shared his intentions towards his film.
Messages from the International Jury also brightened the ceremony. Thanks to Ms.Naomi Kawase who had sent us a kind video message, and Mr. Chris Fujiwara for attending the ceremony. Besides his busy schedule, Mr. Fujiwara presented us an important message toward the short film and the festival itself.
The ceremony closed with Mr. Masahiro Yoshino, Chairman of the CON-CAN Movie Festival presenting the directors with a certificate and a trophy.
In spite of the bad weather, many audiences gathered with us to celebrate and experience short films with us. We would like to show our greatest gratitude to the Kouhei Ando Research Office, and everyone who were presence. Looking forward to see you all again at our 7th festival!
Below are some docs from this year's CON-CAN.
-Article from TIME magazine online
*Click on a thumbnail to open a larger picture*
6th Award winners with Chris Fujiwara and the staff
CON-CAN Special Jury Award winner, Monica Gallab
Best Picture Awards (Fiction) winner, Takashi Nishihara
CON-CAN Grand Prix Award winner, Edmund Yeo
Dr. Kouhei Ando, Director Isshin Inudou, Masahiro Yoshino
