TALK EVENT
New Way, New World:
3rd Season &
3-Year Retrospective
"New Way, New World: Program for Connecting Japanese Animators to the World" (NeW NeW)—an initiative dedicated to supporting Japanese short animation filmmakers through project development, sending them to major domestic and international animation festivals, and offering networking opportunities—is now concluding its initial three-year run. In this event, alongside activity reports from the Season 3 selected artists (Shinobu Soejima, Hoji Tsuchiya, and Shiika Okada), we welcome Season 2 selected artist Shohei Ohmae and Rupert Bottenberg (Animation Programmer, Fantasia Film Festival), who has served as a NeW NeW advisor. Moderated by Nobuaki Doi (Producer and Advisor of NeW NeW), the session will look back over these three years and discuss the impact and significance of NeW NeW within the international animation scene.
SPEAKER:
Shinobu Soejima, Shiika Okada, Hoji Tsuchiya (3rd Season Selected Artists), Shohei Ohmae (2nd Season Selected Artist), Rupert Bottenberg (Animation Programmer, Fantasia Film Festival / NeW NeW Advisor), Nobuaki Doi (NeW NeW Producer & Advisor)
note: Some speakers may participate online.
GUEST PROFILE
-
-
OHMAE Shohei
Born in Higashi-Agatsuma, Gunma Pref. Capturing everyday scenes and utilizing music and ambient sounds, he strives to create lively characters and a witty style interweaving humor and pathos. He won an award at the 8th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival for “One Day” (2021). Other short works include "Rhythm War" (2023) and "City Lights" (2024). He has also worked on music videos for Yuzu “YELL”, Awesome City Club "Run and Run”, among others. Working on the short film "Whispers of Spring" (tentative title).
-
-
OKADA Shiika
Born in Tokyo in 1996. Specializes in creating animated works that explore themes of eros, love, and gender. The director has received numerous awards and nominations at the Animafest Zagreb, Pia Film Festival, the DigiCon6 JAPAN , and International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2023, the director made a live-action feature film debut. The film’ Kisspeptin Chronicles’ created as part of the 29th PFF Scholarship Program, has been released in theaters in 2025.
-
-
SOEJIMA Shinobu
Shinobu Soejima produces short stop-motion films, installations, and sculptures employing organic materials such as rice, meat, insects, as well as puppets. By fully utilizing the mechanics of animation, she explores the dissolution of boundaries between life and non-life, center and periphery, and the visible and the invisible. Her works have been presented internationally at film festivals and exhibitions, and have received numerous awards, including a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury at the 68th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Bronze Satoshi Kon Award at the Fantasia International Film Festival, a Jury Selection at the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival, and the Eriko Kimura Award at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2018.
-
-
TSUCHIYA Hoji
Born in 1984. Began creating animation in 2004. Exploring expressions that traverse time and space—from folklore to the cosmos—using paper-cut animation, collage, stop-motion objects, and more. The short film ”Black Long Skirt ” (2010) was nominated for the Ottawa International Animation Festival, leading to screenings at numerous festivals both in Japan and abroad. The music video "Spring time-old man" for Uri Nakayama (2016) was selected as a Jury Selection work at the Japan Media Arts Festival. The Pocari Sweat web movie "The Scuffing Song"(2023), produced as a team, received the D&AD Yellow Pencil and numerous other advertising awards. Works extensively across short films, music videos, NHK E-television animated series, web movies, and more.
-
-
Rupert Bottenberg
Writer, editor, visual artist, event producer , Programmer at Fantasia Film Festival
Rupert Bottenberg is a writer, editor, visual artist, event producer, and cultural curator living in Montreal, Canada. In the early 1990s, Bottenberg founded the Montreal Comic Art Jams, a series of multidisciplinary events centred on the creation of improvised, collaborative comics. Bottenberg served as music editor of the Montreal Mirror, the city’s leading English-language newsweekly, from 1998 to 2011. During this time, Bottenberg also curated several group art shows at independent galleries. Bottenberg then spent a decade as co-director of the Montreal-based visual art initiative En Masse, an extensive series of improvised collaborative mural productions. Bottenberg’s 2012 book of graphic literature, Traumstadtdenken (Éditions Trip), won Quebec’s annual Bédélys Indépandant award. Further books of comics and graphic literature include Traumstadtdenken 2 (Trip) and Fourscore Phantasmagores (CZP). In 2012, Bottenberg assumed the position of Director of Animation Programming at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, overseeing the festival’s animation section, Axis (renamed Animation Plus in 2024, with an expanded mandate). Over the course of a decade, Bottenberg has gradually positioned Fantasia as a leading platform for the introduction of new Asian animation to North America and the world at large.
-
-
DOI Nobuaki
Producer, Hiroshima Animation Season, Founder and CEO, New Deer inc.
Nobuaki Doi is the founder and CEO of New Deer inc, a company that “introduces” unknown animation through distribution, production, film festival, writing, and other activities. He is also a producer for the Hiroshima Animation Season. As a producer, he primarily focuses on providing opportunities for Japanese animators to create new works through international co-productions, mainly with France. His publications include Personal Harmony: Norstein and Contemporary Animation Aethetics (Film Art, Inc.) and Makoto Shinkai: The Birth of a National Animator (Shueisha Shinsho).
TALK EVENT
New Way, New World:
3rd Season &
3-Year Retrospective
SCHEDULE
- 2026.11.21 14:05
-
Oasis Park
