After nine days (March 20th to 28th) the second Okinawa International Movie Festival was brought to a close with a ceremony at the Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan.
The prizes were announced by three MCs; Koji Imada, Ayako Kisa and Mai Sato.
The Chairman of the Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mr Tetsu Taira gave the following speech of appreciation. "I would like to thank all the sponsors who have supported this nine-day movie festival at the Tropical Beach and in the Convention Center, and brought it to such a succesful conclusion.Laughter brings us good health, comfort and inspiration. Movies touch our hearts and give us motivation in our work.I would like to thank you all for bringing this moving, invigorating and encouraging event to Okinawa."
He continued "We in Ginowan, Naha and Chatan will strive to bring recognition to this festival so that it ranks alongside Cannes, Berlin and Venice" and closed with greetings in Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese and Okinawan."Arigato! Thank you! Kamsahamnida! Xie xie! Ippei nifee deebiru!"
When Chief Judge of the "World-Wide Laugh" category, Ichiya Nakamura, announced the winner, he was delighted at the laughter from the audience, he said, and prayed for the future growth of this event.
Chief Judge of the Commercial Competition, Shinya Nakajima, enthused "This work had the best audience reaction and made all the judges laugh too. A unanimous Number 1!" while Shinsan Nameko explained "This one was the item I most wanted to buy.It was so honestly amateur, I couldn't believe it when I heard it was made by people from Dentsu"
The Laugh Category "Uminchu" prize was awarded by Ms Yogi, a judge from Uruma,who said "The movies were all pretty funny, so I was able to stay awake right to the end.I hope to work in movie distribution one day so it was really good experience for me."
The prize went to Taku Watanabe for his "Miss KUROSAWA FILM". Leading lady Kazuko Kurosawa of Morisanchu accepted the trophy and the 2.5 million yen prize money.

Kazuko Kurosawa of Morisanchu seemed apologetic as she came on stage to declare "In the world of movies you can get into trouble for calling something "Kurosawa"… but people came to watch it throughout the festival. I'm really grateful to all the staff."
In the Peace Category the "Uminchu" prize was announced by Ms Fujii of Yokohama."I'm really nervous but the huge variety of unique ideas made me enjoy it all and forget I was supposed to be judging!"
A trophy and 2.5 million yen in prize money were awarded for Aditya Chopra's "A Match Made in Heaven"
Finally, Chief Judge Kim Dong Ho, director of the Pusan International Movie Festival,announced the judges' special prize. It went to Taku Watanabe for his "Miss KUROSAWA FILM".
He explained the panel's choice, "It was difficult to find a clear winner, so we had all kinds of discussions.We chose this work for its humorous handling of the loneliness, friendship and love in the life of a female performing artist".
He told how the panel had also greatly appreciated the warm welcome of the people of Okinawa,the festival staff, the volunteers who labored day and night, and the staff of all 24 of the movies shown, before congratulating the staff of "Miss KUROSAWA FILM" on their triumph.
Kazuko Kurosawa of Morisanchu seemed even more apologetic as she came on stage to accept her second award. "I'm so glad I became an actress," she said, "What can I say? I've never had such attention before. Words fail me!" Koji Imada came to her rescue, saying "Sing a song instead!"
which she did: "Oh! Thank you very much! I'm so embarrassed I can't open my eyes!" she improvised as something sparkled in the corners of her eyes…
Mr Hiroshi Osaki, chairman of both the Okinawa International Movie Festival Committee and Yoshimoto Kogyo joked "I've just confirmed that a plain woman crying is far more realistic than a beautiful one. Don't forget to hand in the prize money to accounting tomorrow morning, Kurosawa!".
"As this festival draws to a close, I feel rather sad. All I can do is simply thank the people of Okinawa and all those involved in the festival" he said.
Finally, at Mr Osaki's suggestion, instead of the usual three cheers of "Banzai", they ended the ceremony with three rounds of "Mensore Okinawa" (Welcome to Okinawa).