Judge's comments:

The judges loved the warmth and texture in every frame of this charming piece of animation. A simple story told with care and attention to detail elevated this work to gold.

Description:

Before this was my film, it was my father’s story. He told me about a day at his primary school in Japan—a day he waited for his own father, my grandfather.

Listening to him, I felt a responsibility to capture not just the events, but the feeling: the crushing disappointment of a little boy, and the world-righting joy of being carried on his father’s shoulders. I chose a painterly, dreamlike style because I wanted the animation to feel the way his memory sounded—warm, a little faded, but infinitely cherished.

This film is my conversation with them both. It’s my way of preserving a piece of our family, and my testament to how love gets passed down—not just in words, but as a legacy.