Japan Prize 2015

Prize Winners
Jurors
Past Japan Prize

Annual Report 2015

Prize Winners

The Grand Prix Japan Prize

Title: Our Colonial Hangover
Organization: De Familie Film & TV
Country / Region: Netherlands
Category: Lifelong Learning

With a black-painted face and a slightly clownish outfit, Black Peter walks along with Santa Claus. This traditional character is essential to Christmas in the Netherlands but has become an issue which divides society. Is Black Peter a hangover of racism from the colonial age? Or is he an innocent custom in a traditional event? This program attempts to reveal hidden discrimination which has been handed down from the colonial age. In this program, an interviewer freely offers a microphone to people and the camera shoots people's behavior toward a black person who breaks bicycle locks in a park. And then the program posed a question: Isn’t Black Peter in the Christmas march a mark of hidden discrimination in your mind?

Audiovisual Division

The Best Work in Each Category

Pre-school Category
(The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Prize)

Title: Design Ah! - Episode #85
Organization: Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
NHK Educational Corporation
Country / Region: Japan
Category: Pre-school

Industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, character design, architectural design and lighting design—there are designs all around us. Their aims are to make things easier to use and to enhance their beauty and pleasure by capturing and improving their essences. Japan’s most renowned designers and musicians gathered together for Design Ah! From the viewpoint of design, they reexamine things which we take for granted and express their insights through novel video art techniques and music. This program’s aim is to take a step further to inspire a sense of design in children and adults and also to show how design is interesting.

Primary Category
(The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize)

Title: Teacher X - Hello! Mr. Mayor
Organization: Public Television Service Foundation (PTS)
Country / Region: Taiwan
Category: Primary

Li Hui-jen, a documentary filmmaker, goes to an elementary school classroom in Taipei for a special class. Li gives the excited but anxious students a task: Fight against something you think is unreasonable. As their target, they choose Taipei city’s milk campaign, which is designed to tackle calcium deficiency. Among the pupils, it is notorious for interrupting class hours and their free time. The children take action to request that the city authorities review the campaign. At first they fret over blunt telephone communications and cry bitter tears when they try to contact local councilors and research organizations. Finally they succeed in getting an appointment with the mayor in person. Civic or democracy education sounds difficult but there is a lesson to learn about how to face society starting from thinking that something is unreasonable.

Youth Category
(The Minister of Foreign Affairs Prize)

Title: The Dictator
Organization: Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR)
Art89
Country / Region: Sweden
Category: Youth

How would you react if your civil rights were taken away from you? How would you feel if you were forced to live in a society that prohibits your free travel? In this program, eight young people attempt to live for eight days under a dictator's orders. Prize money of 100,000 Swedish krona to the winner is their incentive. The eight prepare themselves and arrive at the venue but the dictator gives them stern orders from day one. They are only allowed to bring certain things into this closed society: no phones, no computers. Are cosmetics allowed? Shampoo? Toilet paper? Each person has their own claims about what they need. The program gives us a picture of an anti-democratic society where freedom is taken away completely and inspires us to think about what democracy is.

Lifelong Learning Category
(The Governor of Tokyo Prize)

Title: Our Colonial Hangover
Organization: De Familie Film & TV
Country / Region: Netherlands
Category: Lifelong Learning

Creative Frontier Category
(The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize)

Title: The Power Factor
Organization: Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR)
Country / Region: Sweden
Category: Creative Frontier

It is easy to say “democracy,” but it’s a complex topic that can be difficult for young people to grasp. So prior to the Swedish election in 2014, the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company developed The Power Factor, a cross-media-production, consisting of TV programs and a website for young adults. Targeting 16- to 22-year-olds, its game mechanics provide a fun way to learn about democracy in the classroom or at home. Six color blocks representing each theme such as “Compare with others’ opinions,” “What you can do for society” and “Quiz” make the website easy to use. It deserves attention for its game mechanics that not only tell the rules of democracy but explain what democracy means for young individuals.

Special Prizes

The Japan Foundation President’s Prize

Title: Nowhere To Call Home: A Tibetan in Beijing
Organization: Stories That Matter Ltd.
Tripod Media
Country / Region: United States, China
Category: Lifelong Learning

A Tibetan widow, Zanta, confronts her autocratic father-in-law when he denies her son an education. She escapes to Beijing with her seven-year-old son hoping to find a school. Struggling as a street vendor of Tibetan jewelry and fighting discrimination against Tibetans, she manages to find a school for her son with an American woman’s help. However, when they return to their Tibetan village for the New Year holiday, the family feud heats up. The father-in-law tries to keep the boy. From Tibet to Beijing, and again to Tibet, her journey never ends. She suffers from discrimination against women in her village, and from discrimination against Tibetans in Beijing. This documentary film captures Zanta’s search for peace.

The UNICEF Prize

Title: How Ky turned into Niels
Organization: IKON
Country / Region: Netherlands
Category: Primary

Doing mischief, running around outside and a lot of football practice: these activities make Ky really happy, but she has also been unhappy for years because she has a girl’s body. Last summer, Ky finally managed to tell her parents that she wants to become a boy and would like to have a different name: Niels. Together with her friend Tibor, who experiences the same distress, they come out to their new school class that they are transgender children. Who are you? How can you be yourself? The program poses these questions by documenting a girl’s conflict and her courage in trying to overcome it.

Special Jury Prize

Title: Children of the Holocaust
Organization: Fettle Animation
BBC Learning
Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association
Country / Region: United Kingdom
Category: Youth

A family evacuated from Germany to Prague, then to the Netherlands and finally immigrated to the United Kingdom. From Poland to the UK, a boy was forced onto trains provided solely for refugee children. This program presents six remarkable stories of survivors of intense Nazi oppression who managed to make it to the United Kingdom. A combination of thoughtfully designed animation and on-camera interviews vividly depicts this tragedy from the past. This program was created as an aid for children learning about the holocaust in secondary school. It promotes discussion about World War II events but also offers opportunities to think about prejudice and discrimination. Also it helps adults consider how to treat children in harsh circumstances.

TV Proposal Division

The Best Proposal

The Hoso Bunka Foundation Prize

Title: Donkeybook Teaching English
Organization: Animatropo
Country / Region: Colombia
Category: Children

This proposed program is an animation based on a real story about a schoolteacher named Louis. In the program, Louis' team of his library-bearing donkeys Alpha and Beto, a nine-year-old girl named Luchi, and a six-year-old boy named Pipe, share adventures in the world of a secret library. The aim of the program is to enhance and entertain children in rural areas who have few opportunities to learn English as a second language. The target age is six- to nine-year-olds. Through nature, culture, and the familiar music of Columbia, this program aims to help children learn English without stress.

Excellent Proposal

The National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan Prize

Title: Nature: My Teacher
Organization: Aguan Society (ASO)
Country / Region: Bangladesh
Category: Children

Let’s find the letters Y and V in fork-shaped branches, and O and W in a rickshaw, a common vehicle in Bangladesh. If you put stones on the ground, you can make any alphabet letter with them. Many letters are hiding in the nature. This proposed program aims to teach basic English to children living in rural poverty where English learning materials are not available. Animation and the voice of Mr. Alam, a teacher, will maintain children’s interest for 30 minutes. Another aim of the program is to give general knowledge about daily life.

Jurors

Final Selection Jurors

COMMITTEE 1

Audiovisual Division [Pre-School, Primary, & Creative Frontier Categories] / TV Proposal Division

Leader of Committee 1

Name :: Natalie Chan
Country / Region :: Hong Kong
Title & Organization :: Head of TV Programming & Administration
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

Leader of the Creative Frontier Category

Name :: Benjamin Manns
Country / Region :: Germany
Title & Organization :: Producer / Editor
Südwestrundfunk (SWR)

Name :: Andrzej Maleszka
Country / Region :: Poland
Title & Organization :: Film Director

Chairperson of TV Proposal Division

Name :: Lawrence Mirkin
Country / Region :: Canada
Title & Organization :: President
Mirkin Creative Inc.

COMMITTEE 2

Audiovisual Division [Youth & Creative Frontier Categories] / TV Proposal Division

Chairperson of Audiovisual Division

Name :: Tuula Rajavaara
Country / Region :: Finland
Title & Organization :: Director / Script writer / Producer
Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE)

Leader of Committee 2

Name :: Jacqueline Hlongwane
Country / Region :: South Africa
Title & Organization :: Programme Manager: SABC2
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

Name :: Carlos Eduardo Smith Rovira
Country / Region :: Colombia
Title & Organization :: Director
HIERROanimación S.A.S.

Name :: Roziah Naam
Country / Region :: Malaysia
Title & Organization :: Principal Assistant Director
Radio Television Malaysia (RTM)

COMMITTEE 3

Audiovisual Division [Lifelong Learning & Creative Frontier Categories] / TV Proposal Division

Leader of Committee 3

Name :: Francois Bertrand
Country / Region :: France
Title & Organization :: CEO / Producer
Camera Lucida Productions

Name :: Edwina Waddy
Country / Region :: Australia
Title & Organization :: Channel Manager, ABC2
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Name :: Malu Viana Batista
Country / Region :: Brazil
Title & Organization :: Executive Director
Television America Latina (TAL)

Name :: Katsuhiro Inoue
Country / Region :: Japan
Title & Organization :: Head of Economic & Current Affairs Programs Division /
Program Production Department
Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)