Winners of the 26th Nihon Eiga Professional Taisho

The award ceremony was held at Theatre Shinjuku on 13 April and here is the list of winners:

Best Movie: Distraction Babies

Best Actress: Kuroki Haru (Rip van Winkle no Hanayome)

Best Actor: Suda Masaki (Setoutsumi / Oboreru Knife)

Best Director: Mori Tatsuya (FAKE)

Best New Director: Shoji Hiroshi (Ken to Kazu)

Best New Actress: Kamishiraishi Mone (Oboreru Knife / Chihayafuru Kami no Ku / Chihayafuru Shimo no Ku) / Mamiya Yuki (Kaze ni oboreta onna)

Special Award: Sano Kazuhiro (But Only Love)

Special Achievement Award: the late Arato Genjiro

Best Ten Movies
1) Distraction Babies
2) Fuchi ni Tatsu
3) Rip van Winkle no Hanayome
4) SHARING
5) FAKE
6) Over Fence
7) Himeanole
8) Nagai Iiwake
9) Danchi
10) Setoutsumi

Sources: Eiga.com / Oricon

The 90th Kinema Junpo Best 10 Japanese movies of 2016 (Judges' choice)

1) Kono sekai no katasumi ni

2) Shin Godzilla

3) Fuchi ni tatsu

4) Distraction Babies

5) Nagai Iiwake

6) Rip van Winkle no Hanayome

7) Yu wo wakasu hodo no atsui ai

8) Creepy Itsuwari no Rinjin

9) Over Fence

10) Ikari

Source: Kinema Junpo

Winners of the 8th TAMA Movie Awards (2016)

Movies which were screened between October 2015 and September 2016 were eligible for entry and the winners were decided by the TAMA Eiga Forum Committee. The prize giving ceremony was held on 19 November:

Best Movie
Over Fence
Danchi

Special Award
Distraction Babies
Jogging Wataridori

Best Actor
Miura Tomokazu (Katsuragi Jiken / 64 Rokuyon)
Odagiri Jo (Over Fence / FOUJITA)

Best Actress
Koizumi Kyoko (Fukigen na Kakko)
Aoi Yu (Over Fence / Kishibe no Tabi /  Kazoku wa tsurai yo)

Best New Director
Maeda Shiro (Fukigen na Kakko)
Koizumi Norihiro (Chihayafuru Kami no Ku / Chihayafuru Shimo no Ku)

Best New Actor
Wakaba Ryuya (Katsuragi Jiken)
Murakami Nijiro (Distraction Babies / Natsumi no Hotaru / Sayounara)

Best New Actress
Matsuoka Mayu (Chihayafuru Shimo no Ku / Neko nanka yondemo konai)
Komatsu Nana (Distraction Babies / Kurosaki-kun no iinari ni nante naranai / Bakuman / Hero Mania Seikatsu)

Sources: Natalie / TAMA Film Festival

First-day-screening event of new movie "Over Fence"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Over Fence" was held at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo on 17 September which was attended by the director Yamashita Nobuhiro and cast members Aoi Yu, Matsuda Shota, Mitsushima Shinnosuke, Kitamura Yukiya and Matsuzawa Takumi. Unfortunately, the lead actor Odagiri Jo was absent as he was away in Cuba for the filming of another movie "Ernest". In place of him was a real-size photo panel which was carried by Mitsushima onto the stage. Matsuda revealed that he was the one who suggested making this panel and the staff promised that it would look nice since the movie was filmed in 4K but he joked that the image quality looked too coarse to be considered nice.

Matsuda also read an apology letter from Odagiri who said sorry for being unable to attend the first-day-screening event which is unheard of in the industry. However, he called upon everyone to take this in the positive light and said that having the lead absent might bring some novelty to the standard first-day-screening events so he believes that he is leading the charge for a change. This led everyone to burst out laughing to which Matsuda commented that Odagiri must be happy that his message had the intended effect. Odagiri also mentioned an interesting incident while they were in Hakodate for the filming where he was at a restaurant and ordered kani miso soup and the owner gave him another bowl of simple miso soup as a free gift. so he was wondering what he should do with two bowls of miso soup. As for his thoughts on the movie, Odagiri commented that there were times when things didn't make sense to him but he still felt happy during the filming and was impressed by how well it had turned out. Aoi revealed that Matsuda had been practising how to read Odagiri's letter while they were at the backstage and was relieved for him that this had gone well without hitches.

Aoi also echoed the view that she likes simple stories about happiness and said that she had learnt a lot from Odagiri during the process. She also joked that the audience can see Odagiri's photo panel that they made the film on a relatively tight budget so she called upon them to spread the word and promote the movie.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by the late Sato Yasushi, describes how a lonely man who was divorced tries to restart his life. The film will be shown in various film festivals with the first being at the Busan International Film Festival in October.

Sources: Eiga.com / Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi