The 2022 CAMERA JAPAN Award

The 2022 edition of CAMERA JAPAN wrapped yesterday. Thank you for your support! 皆様、どうも有難うございます。

Today we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 Audience Award. After counting all the votes in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Tokyo Kurds remains at the top of the ratings. Congratulations to director HYUGA Fumiari.

Tokyo Kurds explores the issues facing asylum seekers and immigrants in Japan in a documentary that paints a moving portrait of two young Kurdish men. Although both men have lived in Japan for most of their lives, they cannot get a visa. Despite their dreams for the future, they cannot work or study, and are always in danger of being detained by the immigration office.

This is the second year in a row that a documentary has taken the audience award. Interestingly, the 2021 winning film was also a documentary that dealt with immigration issues in Japan.

The top 5 films are:
1. Tokyo Kurds
2. Anime Supremacy
3. Riverside Mukolitta
4. They Say Nothing Stays the Same
5. Eternally Younger than Those Idiots

The previous winners of the CAMERA JAPAN Audience Award are Ushiku (2021), ON-GAKU: Our Sound (2020), Fly Me to the Saitama (2019) One Cut of the Dead (2018), A Silent Voice (2017), Flying Colors (2016), Kakekomi (2015), Uzumasa Limelight (2014), Tokyo Family (2013), Kamome Diner (2012), Bunny Drop (2011), Wig (2010), Osaka Hamlet (2009), Fine, Totally Fine (2008), Tekkon Kinkreet (2007) and Hibi: Days of Fire (2006).