Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year

Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year
Awarded for	Excellence in animation films of Japan
Country	Japan
Presented by	The Nippon Academy-sho association
First awarded	2007
Official website	http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/

The Animation of the Year (アニメーション作品賞^?) of the Japan Academy Prize is one of the annual Awards given by the Nippon Academy-sho association (Japan Academy Prize Association).

Although the Japan Academy Prize has been awarded annually since 1978 to Japanese films, animation films were disregarded in the early years of the Prize. Animation films have included top grossing Japanese films of the year, such as Doraemon (1980,1981,1983,1984),Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service (1989),Only Yesterday (1991),Porco Rosso (1992),Pom Poko (1994), and Whisper of the Heart (1995). Yet no animated film received a nomination for a Japan Academy Prize during those years. This was notably different from other major Japanese film awards, such as the Mainichi Film Award and Kinema Junpo, which both awarded Picture of the Year to My Neighbor Totoro in 1988.

In 1990, the Japan Academy Prize Association gave a Special Award to Kiki's Delivery Service at the 13th the Japan Academy Prize, and again in 1995 to Takahata's Pom Poko. However, there was still no nomination for these animated box office hits.

But in 1998, the Japan Academy Prize Association's attitude toward animated films changed with the hugely successful Princess Mononoke, the highest box-office record ever in the history of Japanese cinema, which dominated the other major film prizes (See: Awards). As a result, at the 21st Japan Academy Prize that year, Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke became the first-ever animation film to be nominated for and win the Japan Academy Prize Picture of the Year. Yoshiyuki Tomino, famed for Gundam, mentioned it: "A hole that Hayao Miyazaki made spending ten years".

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