24th JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

Outline

  • Entry Period

    2020.7.1(Wed) - 9.4(Fri)

  • Organizer

    24st Japan Media Arts Festival Executive Committee

  • Chair

    MIYATA Ryohei(Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan)

  • Operating Committee

    FURUKAWA Taku(Animation Artist)

    TATEHATA Akira(President, Tama Art University)

Exhibition

  • Dates

    2021.9.23(Thu) - 10.3(Sun)

  • Awards Ceremony

    2020.9.22(Tue)

  • Venue

    Miraikan - The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation

  • Satellite Venue

    CINEMA Chupki TABATA, Panasonic Center TOKYO, Spiral Hall, IKEBUKURO HUMAX CINEMAS, AVATAR ROBOT CAFE

  • Admission

    free

  • Cooperation

    AVATAR ROBOT CAFE

    BEAMS Co., Ltd.

    CINEMA Chupki TABATA

    Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

    David Watts inc.

    Dell Technologies Japan Inc.

    EIZO Corporation

    FUJITSU CLIENT COMPUTING LIMITED

    HUMAX CINEMA INC.

    Intel K.K.

    Miraikan – National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation

    Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Center TOKYO)

    THIRDWAVE CORPORATION

    UNIT.COM INC.,Wacoal Art Center

  • Cooperative Programs

    Bunkamura × MAPP_ 「PLAYTIME」(Bunkamura)

    Différence de nature(Studio tune)

    TIGER & BUNNY 10th Anniversary in GINZA MITSUKOSHI -Limited Collaboration(Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd.)

    Animated film “Gyokō no Nikuko-chan”(Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd., Asmik Ace Inc.)

Jury / Major

Jury

Art Division

AKIBA Fuminori(Aesthetician and Associate Professor, Nagoya University)

Georg TREMMEL(Artist and Researcher)

HACHIYA Kazuhiko(Artist and Associate Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts)

IKEGAMI Takashi(Researcher of Complex Systems Sciences and Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo)

TASAKA Hiroko(Curator of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)

Entertainment Division

KAWADA Tom(AR3Bros.(Three Brothers of Augmented Reality)

HASEGAWA Ai(Artist)

MORIMOTO Chie(Communication Director and Art Director)

SAYAWAKA(Writer and Story Critic)

TOKITA Takashi(Producer and Game Creator, Square Enix Co., Ltd.)

Animation Division

Head of the Jury: SATO Tatsuo(Animation Director and Scriptwriter)

MIZUSAKI Jumpei(Animation Director and CEO, Kamikaze Douga)

O’Hara Hidekazu(Animation Director and Animator)

OYAMA Kei(Producer and CEO, CALF Co., Ltd.)

SUGAWA Akiko(Professor, Institute of Urban Innovation Yokohama National University)

Manga Division

Head of the Jury: OMOTE Tomoyuki(Researcher, Kitakyushu Manga Museum)

KAWAHARA Kazuko(Manga Essayist)

KURATA Yoshimi(Manga Artist and Professor, Otemae University)

NISHI Keiko(Manga Artist)

SHIMAMOTO Kazuhiko(Manga Artist and CEO, Aibic Co., Ltd.)

Festival Platform Award

KAWAMURA Masashi(Creative Director and CCO, Whatever Inc.)

MIZUGUCHI Tetsuya(Founder and CEO, Enhance / Project Professor, Keio University, Graduate School of Media Design)

MIZUTANI Hitomi(Sales & Marketing, THETA Business Division, Smart Vision Business Unit, Ricoh Company, Ltd)

Major

Art Division

HAGIWARA Shunya(Web Designer and Programmer)

HIRAHARA Makoto(Associate Professor, Department of Art Science, Faculty of Arts, Osaka University of Arts)

HIRAKAWA Norimichi(Artist)

IMURA Yasuko(Associate Professor, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences)

MYOKAM Hiroko(Curator and Researcher)

OKA Mizuki(Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems, University of Tsukuba)

TAKAWO Shunsuke(Lecturer, Department of Creative Media Studies, Faculty of Literature, Konan Women’s University)

yang02(Artist)

YUBISUI Yasuko(Assistant Curator, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC])

Manga Division

HIDAKA Toshiyasu(Researcher of Manga)

INOMATA Noriko(Associate Professor, Ibaraki University)

ITO Yu(Associate Professor, Kyoto Seika University)

KANNO Hiroshi(Manga Artist and Professor, Kobe Design University)

KUBO Naoko(Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Hijiyama University Junior College)

NAGAIKE Kazumi(Professor, Oita University Institute for Global Education and Advanced Research)

ODAGIRI Hiroshi(Freelance Writer)

TAMAGAWA Hiroaki(Researcher of Media)

TOYODA Yumetaro(Manga Editor)

Award-winning Works

General comment

  • TATEHATA Akira

    President, Tama Art University

    The judging this year took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many art competitions were either cancelled or postponed, and even when held, the judging process had to be virtually conducted based on photographs in many cases. The Japan Media Arts Festival seems to have been able to cope with this irregular situation relatively smoothly, as it has always called for applications and conducted preliminary screening online. The total number of entries also increased from the previous year, which was a pleasant surprise. This year’s Grand Prize winners were Japanese artists in all four categories. Despite the unusual situation where the number of entries from Japan slightly exceeded that from overseas, the result convinced me of the high quality of Japan in terms of both content and technique. However, I was also somewhat disappointed that there were no foreign works that showed tremendous power and presence. The communication systems in society have been forced to undergo major shifts for unexpected reasons, and this is consequently not unrelated to the form of Media Arts. This situation, in which art and performing arts are forced to rely on virtual communications, can be possibly deemed an opportunity to deconstruct (even if only partially) the relationship between Media Ar ts and other genres, and such tendency will likely persist even in the post-COVID-19 world. From a discerning point of view, Media Arts is also a name given to an ever-transforming domain.

  • FURUKAWA Taku

    Animation Artist

    In late winter of last year, I was writing general critiques for the 2020 festival. I never imagined what would come to follow directly after. Even now, a year later, across the world there’s nary a sign of the situation settling. Who knew words like “remote” and “online” would become common parlance in such a space as living rooms? There were signs. Things have accelerated rapidly in the current century, especially since the arrival of the Internet and then smartphones. I have always enjoyed computers as toys and have been a user since the Apple IIc. For example, let’s say I go to a hospital. The physician doesn’t so much as look at me, just stares at their computer screen. The explanations accompanying the printout of numbers and line graphs are chilling. And I’m forced to remember, oh, right, computers aren’t just toys. Long before this thing we call social distancing, I felt this invisible wall. Maybe that’s what makes Media Arts so interesting, anyway. But I keep coming back to the words of MITAMURA Shunsuke, professor emeritus of the University of Tsukuba and recipient of a Special Achievement Award of the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival, who said, “Cut the power, and it’s curtains.” What about manga? Past Japan Media Arts Festival judge MINAMOTO Taro has an enviable point, that the moment you open the pages of a manga magazine or book, so too does a door to a new world.