The staff of the Locarno Film Festival announced on Thursday that Mamoru Hosoda has won the first-ever Locarno Kids Award. The festival, taking place from August 4–14, will host the Swiss premiere of his latest anime film BELLE (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally “The Dragon and the Freckled Princess”) at the Piazza Grande.
The festival will also organize a Locarno Kids workshop on Japanese animation and its techniques. Locarno Film Festival plans to have 300 screenings of 209 films in this year’s event.
Mamoru Hosoda and his Studio Chizu‘s new BELLE film originally opened on July 16. Chizu describes the story:
Our protagonist, Suzu, is a 17-year old high school girl, who lives in the countryside of Kochi Prefecture with her father, after losing her mother at a young age.
She loves singing with her mother more than anything else, but as a result of her mother’s death…
