Nippon Academy Awards

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Thanks Robin for announcing the awards.  I try to announce all the 
various awards, but these last couple of months have been hellishly busy.

I missed the awards, but then I usually try to avoid them.  The awards 
are sponsored by the major studios, so independent films are virtually 
locked out of them. Except for rare years when the critics like one of 
the big studio films (like this year with Go, which Toei released), the 
films that win many of the other major awards are usually ignored at the 
Nippon Academy Awards. Another reason why the industry has major problems.

I've given my two cents on Go on the list before, but travelling around 
the last couple months it was nice to see some strong criticism of that 
film and Lily ChouChou appearing in various circles. Don't want to put it 
all down, but both films deserve some careful critical attention.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
Yokohama National University