KYOTO INTERNATIONAL FILM AND ART FESTIVAL 2016

KIFF 2016 Shozo Makino Awards Goes to Director Masahiro Shinoda

2016/10/13　Report

The Kyoto International Film And Art Festival gives out two awards each year, the Shozo Makino Award, a long-standing prize which the festival took over from the old Kyoto Film Festival, and the Toshiro Mifune Award created for KIFF.

This year, both recipients receive the Shizuku no Utsuwa trophy created by potter and art writer Takahiro Kondo, using his original technique of gintekisa (silver mist glaze). Kondo is the third generation of renowned ceramicists, whose grandfather Kondo Yuzo was named Living National Treasure for underglaze cobalt-blue wares.

The Shozo Makino Award was chosen by a selection committee. Founded in 1958 to honor Shozo Makino, a Kyoto born filmmaker often regarded as the father of Japanese cinema, the award is given to filmmakers who contributed to the development of Japanese cinema.

Masahiko Tsugawa took to the stage to give the 48th Shozo Makino Award. “The film industry has been declining for some time now, television has taken over and we have less professionals in cinema. This award is recognizing staff members who devote their lives to cinema.”

The 48th Shozo Makino award recipient was announced as Director Masahiro Shinoda, who came up to the stage to receive congratulations. Having collaborated with people outside the film world including composers, and created works that have influenced young directors, he was congratulated by actor Kyozo Nagatsuka. Masahiro Shinoda was a seminal figure of the 1950s and 60s Japanese new wave of cinema.

“Today it has been a long time to see the wonderful smile of Masahiro Shinoda and that’s why I came here. It’s wonderful, but from his smile, I learned that to be happy is everything, he taught me that,” said Nagatsuka.

Masahiro Shinoda then took to the microphone to give his acceptance speech. “I think it was 1964 in the Kyoto Citizen Film Festival I won an award for the movie “Assassin,” the first award I received. Now I’m 85 years old and retired, I think this is the last chance for me to receive an award, starting in Kyoto and ending in Kyoto. I should be humble and I feel that film lies in the destiny of the younger generation,” said Shinoda.