We present the list of winners of the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival that took place from July 16th – 24th in Saitama (Japan).

Feature Length Competition
Grand Prize

Walking Distance by Alejandro Guzmán Alvarez – Mexico | 2015 – 104 min.

Fede suffers from obesity and doesn’t leave his room. When his sister’s husband Ramón shows him a photograph, Fede decides to visit a local camera shop and meets Paulo, with whom he develops a strange relationship.

Trailer (will open in a new window)

Best Director

Bentley Dean and Martin Butler for the film Tanna – Australia | 2015 – 104 min.

Wawa, who lives on the island of Tanna, falls in love with Dain, a grandson of the tribe leader. But as the tribal war brews, Wawa is forced to marry a man from another tribe for a strategic purpose. A young couple is torn between love and tribal rules.

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Best Screenplay

Birds of Passage by Olivier Ringer – Belgium | 2015 – 84 min.

When Cathy’s duck egg hatches, the duckling thinks Margaux, Cathy’s best friend, is its mother. Margaux, however, sits in a wheelchair, and her parents forbid her from raising the duckling in their house.

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SKIP CITY Award

Eriko, Pretended by Akiyo Fujimura – Japan | 2016 – 93 min.

Eriko hears about her estranged sister’s death and decides to come home. After the funeral, Eriko begins raising her sister’s only son, Kazuma. She eventually comes to know that her sister used to get paid for crying at funerals.

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Short Length Competition
Best Picture

Lies by Yuji Mitsuhashi – Japan | 2015 – 25 min.

Chieko is an English teacher. Mikako is a mother of one child. Shoko is an inspiring novelist. Three women tell little lies about themselves, but what are the consequences of those little lies?

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Honorable Mention

Take 8 by Shinichiro Ueda – Japan | 2015 – 19 min.

Takao is an independent filmmaker who is making a film about a wedding at a wedding venue with his girlfriend Akane playing a bride. There’s one more scene to go, but the father of the bride is missing and Akane’s father shows up.

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Hypnotism for Love by Hiroki Inoue – Japan | 2016 – 25 min.

Kyoko and Kana are high school students. They learn hypnotism and decide to try it on the boys they like, so that they fall in love with them. One day, Kana asks Kyoko to approach Reiji and hypnotize him.

Trailer (will open in a new window)

Animation Competition
Best Picture

Complex x COMPLEX by Miyuki Fukada – Japan | 2015 – 24 min.

Yui is a seventh-grade student who can’t wait to become an adult. She has a crush on Takeo who has bushy underarm hair, solid proof of adulthood in men, so Yui believes. Is it love or adoration? A coming of age story about precarious adolescent hearts depicted with humor and mumbled words.

Honorable Mention

To Heel by Madoka – Japan | 2016 – 10 min.

A young student, an office lady, a hostess, and an old woman each pursues their secret fantasies and desires in this ambitiously symbolic animation produced in 3D space with hand-drawn sketches.

Look at Me Only by Tomoki Misato – Japan | 2016 – 7 min.

A couple is on a date in a café. He cares too much about their guinea pig and she gradually gets annoyed. What happened to the heart pounding moments when they began to date? A stop-motion animation that depicts a delicate relationship with a touch of humor.

To know more about this festival please visit the FESTIVAL PROFILE or their official WEBSITE.