89th Kinema Junpo Awards (2015)

Japanese cinephiles have been following Kinema Junpo, also known as Kinejun, since it was first published in 1919 by a group of students from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The Kinejun awards started in 1926 and their yearly top 10 best list remains one of the most prestigious Japanese film awards to this day.

Sounds pretentious? Well, it sounds like the critics at Kinejun would seem to have arthouse tastes but that’s not entirely true; the top 10 list and awards do go to mainstream actors and productions. If anything, it’s probably like the Oscars of Japan.

Winners from this year’s 89th Kinema Junpo Awards (Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Newcomer Male) (Source)

A poster from 2010 featuring the Kinejun award which eerily looks like a headless Oscar (Source)

Here’s the latest 89th Kinema Junpo Awards and Best Ten List for 2015.

Source: Kinema Junpo Website (in Japanese)

Individual Awards

Best Director
Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best Screenplay
Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best Actress
Eri Fukatsu (Journey to the Shore, Parasyte The Final Chapter)

Best Actor
Kazunari Ninomiya (Nagasaki: Memories of My Son)

Best Supporting Actress
Haru Kuroki (When the Curtain Rises; Solomon’s Perjury)

Best Supporting Actor
Masahiro Motoko (The Big Bee)

Best Newcomer Award (Male and Female)
Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)
Atsushi Shinohara (Three Stories of Love)

Best Foreign Film Director
George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Film Awards

Best Japanese Feature Film
Three Stories of Love (Directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi; Distributed by Shochiku Broadcasting and Arc Films)

Best Foreign Feature Film
Mad Max: Fury Road (Directed by George Miller; Distributed by Warner Brothers)

Best Documentary Feature Film
Okinawa: The Afterburn (Directed by John Junkerman; Produced and distributed by: SIGLO)

Best Ten Japanese Feature Films

1. Three Stories of Love
2. Fires on the Plain
3. Happy Hour
4. Our Little Sister
5. Journey to the Shore
6. Gonin Saga
7. This Country’s Sky
8. Solomon’s Perjury
9. Nagasaki: Memories of My Son
10. Being Good
10. Rolling

Runner-up tied in 12th place:
KAKEKOMI and BAKUMAN。

Best Ten Foreign Feature Films

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (Australia and USA)
2. American Sniper (USA)
3. The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal)
4. Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (USA)
5. The Assassin (Taiwan, China, Hong Kong)
6. Hard to Be a God (Russia, Czech Republic)
7. Whiplash (USA)
8. Winter Sleep (Turkey)
9. Inherent Vice (USA)
10. Still Life (UK)

Runner-up:
The Imitation Game (USA and UK)

Best Ten Documentary Feature Films (Japan)

1. Okinawa: The Afterburn (USA and Japan)
2. We Shall Overcome
3. Seto Kuro: The Works of Kato Kozo
4. Live with the Memory
5. Bashofu: The Textile Art of Taira Toshiko
6. Fukushima: A Record of Living Things Episode Three -Diffusion-
7. The Birth of Life, Creation of the Endangered Japanese Killifish
7. X Years Later (Hoshasen wo abita X nen go)
9. Nuclear Japan
9. School for Everyone (Minna no Gakko)

Runner-up:
Tell the Prime Minister