AwardOkawa Hiroshi Award, Fukiya Koji Award

©魚豊・講談社／『ひゃくえむ。』製作委員会

ROCK'N ROLL MOUNTAIN Inc.

Established in 2020, ROCK'N ROLL MOUNTAIN is a studio led by Kenji Iwaisawa. It specializes in rotoscoping techniques based on live-action footage. Its first feature film, ON-GAKU: Our Sound, was nominated for an Annie Award, and its second feature, 100 Meters, was qualified for consideration at the Academy Awards. The studio is currently preparing its next animated feature film.

Reasoning for the Award

The Okawa Hiroshi Award recognizes the achievements of studios and producers who contribute to the development of animation culture and pioneer the future of production.

The 4th Niigata International Animation Film Festival is proud to present the Okawa Hiroshi Award to Rock 'n Roll Mountain, honoring its achievements in undertaking new challenges within the animation industry, notably through the production of the film 100 Meters., which was released in 2025.

Rock 'n Roll Mountain, established as the personal studio of director Kenji Iwaisawa, demonstrated a new approach to feature-length animation during the production of 100 Meters (Hyakuemu.). It achieved a performance level suitable for a "major" production while maximizing the authorship and unique creativity inherent in traditional independent work.

The success of this endeavor was supported by collaboration with outstanding external professionals, including Character Designer and Chief Animation Director Keisuke Kojima. By securing the cooperation of highly skilled and knowledgeable creators, the studio jointly built a new production pipeline that successfully harmonizes commercial viability with personal creativity. This constitutes a groundbreaking attempt to protect the diversity of Japanese animation production and pave the way for future talent.

The resulting film, 100 Meters is an artistically and technically highly accomplished work, mirroring its innovative production process, and has received enthusiastic support from audiences and industry professionals alike.

Furthermore, Director Iwaisawa has shown a proactive commitment to fostering young talent, notably by taking on the role of producer for director Ryuya Suzuki's film, JINSEI.

This film festival highly commends your company's open production approach, which is unconstrained by existing frameworks, and the excellent production work that maximizes the abilities of talented creators, as demonstrated through these challenges. It is for these reasons that we present this award.

©2025「ChaO」製作委員会

©此元和津也／ホウセンカ製作委員会

Hidetsugu ITO
Animation Director (ChaO), Animator (The Last Blossom)

Hidetsugu Ito has been at the forefront of the Japanese animation industry for many years as a specialist in action and effects animator. Ito possesses exceptional skill in transforming natural phenomena—such as water, fire, and explosions—and dynamic character action into unique forms of animated expression. His representative works include STEAMBOY (Key Animator), the NARUTO movie series (Animation Director, Key Animator, etc.), Sword of the Stranger (Co-Animation Director, Key Animator), the Doraemon movie series (Key Animator), Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (Key Animator), Weathering with You (Fish Designer, Key Animator), Suzume (Sadaijin (Giant Form) Designer, Prop Designer, Key Animator), and many others.

Reasoning for the Award

The 4th Niigata International Animation Film Festival is honored to present the Fukiya Koji Award to Mr. Hidetsugu Ito, recognizing his outstanding achievements in the 2025 releases Doraemon: Nobita's Art World Tales, ChaO, and The Last Blossom, as well as his long-standing contributions to the field of animation expression.

In addition to the latest installment of the long-running Doraemon the Movie series, the cuts animated by Mr. Ito in ChaO and The Last Blossom—both monumental works that pioneer new forms of Japanese animation expression—created an overwhelming visual experience for audiences.

Mr. Ito has consistently been at the forefront of animation drawing and expression, striving to elevate natural phenomena such as water, fire, wind, lightning, and explosions, as well as dynamic character actions, into a form of sheer cinematic pleasure unique to animation. This year, with three feature-length animated films to which he contributed being released consecutively, the year symbolizes his decades of dedication and the career that has supported countless masterpieces.

This film festival pays its highest respect not only to his remarkable contributions to the three featured works but also to his entire career path, through which he has continually expanded the possibilities of Japanese animation expression.