Koji Yamamura

Posted in Journal on Oct 23rd, 2008

Know more about him (my idol!).

Koji Yamamura, a nominee for the 75th Academy Awards for his short film Atama Yama (Mt. Head) and Grand Prix winner at Annecy, has been a top independent artist in Japan with an impressive body of animated short films. At 29, he started his company Yamamura Inc. with his wife, and signed with Acme Filmworks as an animation director in 2002.
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Yamamura remains independent despite the large scale commercialisation of Japanese animation that led to the birth of a genre – anime. The formation of Japan Animation Film Association (JAFA) in 1971 saw the push towards independence. It was later renamed as Japan Animation Association (JAA) in 1978 and regularly put together programs to promote the latest and best of Japanese animation including classics. Members of various styles and interests gather to promote animation culture in Japan, and to raise funds too. Yamamura is currently the sub-chairman of JAA, with Kihachiro Kawamoto as President after inherited from Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astroboy.
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Yamamura’s recent short film A Country Doctor is a faithful adaptation of Frankz Kafka’s original text. When asked about commercial animation versus independent animation, he said,

“I am often asked a question which makes me conscious of differences between commercial animation and art animation, but I have no intention to make discrimination. Simply speaking, I just see whether works are interesting or not. In my case, I start with a clean slate ‘how to make animation’ but there is someone who accumulates studio-like know-how, then creates. These do not contradict each other, but I feel that the difference is our starting point or where we are.”
– Interview at Japan Media Arts Festival 2007

Yamamura sensei will be here for a seminar and a retrospective showcase of his short films. Get your Animation Nation ticket here.

His shorts collection DVD.

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Koji Yamamura

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