Every year, the Japan Media Arts Festival is held in Japan to honor domestic and international masterpieces from a diverse range of media art.
This year, the 25th Festival began calling for works from July 2021, and the winners were finally announced last month. Israeli artist Tal Kantor won the excellence award in the animation division with her short film, “Letter to a Pig”.
The 25th Awards Ceremony and the Exhibition of Award-winning Works is planned to be held this September in Japan.
今回は今注目のアーティスト、タル・カントル氏の全貌に迫ります。
The Japan Media Arts Festival
Japan Media Arts Festival is a comprehensive festival of Media Arts held in Japan since 1997. In this festival, outstanding worldwide works from a diverse range of media are selected and honored. Awards are given to several works in each of its four divisions: Art, Entertainment, Animation, and Manga.
Since exhibitions of award-winning works are held, one of the biggest characteristic of this festival is that we can fully enjoy the art works.
The 25th Festival received over 3,500 entries from 95 countries and regions around the world. Japan Media Arts Festival continues developing into an international festival with the goal of activating domestic and foreign media arts scene. You can encounter outstanding next-generation works full of artistry and creativity through the event.
Award-winning Artist “Tal Kantor”
The 25th animation-division-excellence-award was given to an Israeli artist, Tal Kantor. Every year, one feature film and one short film recieves the excellence award in the animation division. Short film award was given to Tal’s “Letter to a Pig”.
Tal Kantor [b. 1988] is an award-winning animation filmmaker and visual artist. Tal graduated with honors from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, where she currently lectures at the Screen-Based Arts Department.
In her works, Tal deals with the subject of “Memory” and uses a unique technique she has developed, which combines drawing, photography, video, painting, and animation.
Her short animated film “In Other Words” won 17 awards and was officially selected in more than 100 festivals worldwide. Also, Tal served as the animation director of the documentary feature film “ADVOCATE” (Emmy Award winner 2021, Oscar shortlist 2020).
“Letter to a Pig”, which won the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2022), is her debut film.
“Letter to a Pig”
“Letter to a Pig” is a film about a young school girl traveling a strange imaginary adventure after hearing the holocaust survivor’s story.
An old man is telling his testimony in the girls class. During the war, he lived in a pigsty to escape from the enemies. He survives by living with the pigs. This old man starts reading a thank you letter written to the pig who saved his life. Suddenly, a pig appears in front of the girl. She starts sinking into a twisted dream and…
After listening to the holocaust surviver’s story, the pig's controversial figure/symbol makes the schoolgirl confront big questions about her identity, as the boundary between animalism and the extremes of human nature blurs.
“Letter to a Pig” mainly uses the monochrome features, however, effectively utilizes photographs and colors, making the film “Tal-style”.
Tal Kantor keeps pursuing the subject of “memory” through her art works full of passion and uniqueness. She will attend the Awards Ceremony and the Exhibition of Award-winning Works, held this September in Japan.
Check Tal’s works HERE.
Websites
Tal Kantor Official Website: https://www.talkantor.com/
25th Japan Media Arts Festival: Award-winning Arts: https://j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/
Japan Media Arts Festival: “Letter to a Pig”: https://j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/single/letter-to-a-pig/
