SHIN GODZILLA Wins Big at (Japan’s) Academy Awards
It’s something you’ll likely never hear in the United States: Shin Godzilla has won Best Picture.
On March 3rd, the Nippon Academy-sho Association hosted the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize (第40回日本アカデミー賞) in Tokyo, and Big G was a big winner, taking home seven awards and helping Toho dominate the event.
Also known as Godzilla: Resurgance, the film is an update of the classic version of the Gojira kaiju monster from Toho, Ltd. Because of the recent success of the American Godzilla reboot from Legendary Pictures, Toho took it upon themselves to do their own reboot, and took G back to his city-stomping origins, eschewing the more recent monster vs. monster format.
The new film — which was the top grossing Japanese live action film of 2016 — resurrects Godzilla in the aftermath of a natural disaster instead of the horror of the nuclear destruction that spawned the first film in 1954.
The awards taken home by the film:
■ Picture of the Year
Shin Godzilla (シン・ゴジラ, Shin Gojira)
■ Director of the Year
Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi; Shin Godzilla
■ Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Kousuke Yamada; Shin Godzilla
■ Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction
Takayuki Kawabe; Shin Godzilla
■ Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Yuji Hayashida and Eri Sakushima; Shin Godzilla
■ Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording
Jun Nakamura and Haru Yamada; Shin Godzilla
■ Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing
Hideaki Anno and Atsuki Sato; Shin Godzilla
Toho had a strong showing at the award ceremony with other projects: Rage, 64 Part 1, Your Name, all of which took home awards. But the biggest winner of the night was definitely a science fiction film.
Let that sink in.
