Mazda has claimed top honours at the 4th annual International Auto Film Festa for its acclaimed short film 25 Years With An RX-7: The Last 3 Days, standing head and shoulders above 519 entries from 73 countries.
Taking home the coveted Grand Prix trophy along with the Team Ukyo prize presented by former F1 driver Ukyo Katayama, the film received over one million views on YouTube over the past year.
The film tells the story of Naoko Nishimoto, a resident of Nagasaki who was preparing to hand in her driver’s license on her upcoming 80th birthday.
For the prior 25 years, she had been driving a silver FD Mazda RX-7, a car she fell in love with after watching the anime Initial D with her son Makoto and had fastidiously maintained throughout that time.
Rather than waiting until the choice was beyond her control, Naoko made the decision to surrender her license consciously, also meaning it would be the end of the road for her time with her beloved twin-turbocharged, twin-rotor sports car.
Thus, she decided to hand it back to Mazda in an emotional ceremony at Kyushu Mazda Akasako Store, with the company planning to fully restore it and give it a second life as a publicity vehicle on its heritage fleet.
“It was a great experience making a movie about Naoko Nishimoto, a lady turning 80 who has decided to hand in her driver’s license, and therefore give up her precious RX-7 after spending 25 memorable years with the car,” explains Rinichi Ogawa, the film’s director. “Very emotional story.”
IAFF founder Yoshiyuki Shimizu was also keen to highlight the impact of the RX-7 film, which saw the festival’s first double win.
“All of the winning films reminded us that cars are not merely a means of transportation, but are deeply intertwined with people’s emotions, culture, and lives,” he explained.
“In particular, director Ogawa’s RX-7 film, which achieved the first-ever double win, had a powerful ability to resonate with many people regardless of nationality.”
Following the festival’s partnership with Dunlop, the newly-created Dunlop Tyre Award went to A Day in Rothenburg, Germany in 1:87 Scale from Japanese director Kenji Yokokawa, while the Best Cars of the Year trophy was awarded to Driven: Maserati 300S: Masterpiece in Motion by British director Sam Hancock.
Of the two Japanese media awards, the Auto Bild Japan trophy went to A Drive Through Time by Luxembourg director Lukas Grevis, with the Luxembourg embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission Anne Moes attending in his place.
The final ProNews trophy was awarded to Mannequin, an eye-opening animated movie by Romanian directors George ve Ganaeaard and Horia Cucuta telling the story of a family of crash test dummy mannequins.
All of the award winning films can be viewed on the International Auto Film Festa website.
