Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There ( Omoide no Marnie ) anime film won the Children's Jury Prize in the Animated Feature Film category of the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF). The award ceremony took place on Sunday during the festival's closing ceremonies. The second prize went to the French/Belgian film Zarafa by Remi Bezancon and Jean-Christophe Lie. The festival ran from October 23 to November 1.

GKids, the North American distributor for Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There , describes the film's story:

Sent from her foster home in the city one summer to a sleepy town by the sea in Hokkaido, Anna dreams her days away among the marshes. She believes she's outside the invisible magic circle to which most people belong – and shuts herself off from everyone around her, wearing her “ordinary face.” Anna never expected to meet a friend like Marnie, who does not judge Anna for being just what she is. But no sooner has Anna learned the loveliness of friendship than she begins to wonder about her newfound friend...

When Marnie Was There adapts Joan G. Robinson's classic English children's novel of the same name. In his second film, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010's The Secret World of Arrietty) has shifted the setting from the novel's Great Britain to a Japanese village on the shores of Hokkaido. Yonebayashi wrote the screenplay with Keiko Niwa (The Secret World of Arrietty) and Masashi Ando (A Letter to Momo, Spirited Away and Paprika). Ando also handled the character designs and animation direction. Takatsugu Muramatsu composed the film's soundtrack.

The film premiered in Japan in July 2014, and it then premiered in North America at The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) in February. The film shipped on home video in North America on October 6. The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) nominated the film for the Best Animated Feature Film category, alongside Keiichi Hara's Miss Hokusai .

Mizuho Nishikubo and Production I.G.'s Giovanni's Island anime film won the same prize at 2014's CICFF. Additionally, Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Patema Inverted won the Youth Jury Prize in the Feature Film category and Mari Miyazawa's animated short "Decoration" won the Children's Jury Prize in the Animated Short Film category in the same year.

Source: Anime Anime Biz