2015 clay-animated short focuses on postwar poet Yoshirō Ishihara

The Ottawa International Animation Festival announced at an awards ceremony on Saturday that Ryo Orikasa's "Suijun-Genten" ("Datum Point") short won the Award for Best Experimental or Abstract Animation. The festival released a quote from the jury that assigned the award, saying "Loved the texture. The granularity of the sound and medium had a visceral quality. Poetic beauty and integration of text, texture and sound. It was mysterious. I don't know what it was... but I was moved."

Orikasa's seven-minute clay-animated short focuses on the postwar poet Yoshirō Ishihara. He released the short in 2015. The short previously won the Noburou Oofuji Award at the 70th Annual Mainichi Film Award in January. The Noburou Oofuji Award honors animated works that offer new forms of creative expression.

Orikasa created the "Scripta volant" ("Writings fly away") short in 2011 for the Tokyo University of the Arts. He released the "Notre chambre" ("Echo chamber") short earlier this year.

Other Japanese works that screened at this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival include Ryo Okawara's "Sugar Lump" short, Eri Okazaki's "Feed" short, and Koji Yamamura's "'Parade' de Satie ("Satie's 'Parade'") short.