Japan Prize 2017 Winners Include ACTF’s Little Lunch

The winners of this year’s Japan Prize, an international contest for educational media, were unveiled during a ceremony at NHK Broadcasting Center in Tokyo yesterday.

Little Lunch: The Nightmare Before Graduation, a playground comedy special from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) catalog, won the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology prize for best primary series. The special was produced by Gristmill for the ABC. It was among 13 finalists in the category, which recognizes live-action, animated and doc programming for kids 6 to 12.

“We are so thrilled that our Little Lunch graduation special has been honored and we’re delighted to discover that the extremely big moment of kids leaving primary school is the same in any language,” said Robyn Butler, producer for Gristmill.

“Little Lunch continues to capture audiences’ hearts across the world, and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of such a groundbreaking series with the ABC and the Gristmill team,” added Jenny Buckland, the CEO of ACTF.

The Grand Prix prize went to France’s Coal Heap Kids (Chasseur d’étoiles, France Télévisions, CNC, Procirep, Angoa and Java Films). Other winners include Ecuador’s In Sign: The Moon and Wolf (EDUCA, IPANC and Dunn Films) for the preschool category; France’s You Will Not Have My Hate (Eclectic Presse, CNC, France TV and Java Films) for the lifelong learning category; and Japan’s EyeMoT application software from Shimane University for the creative frontier category.

Switzerland’s Ayham: My New Life (SRF Swiss Radio and Television) and the Netherlands’ Just Kids: My Body, My Life (EO/IKONdocs) won the Japan Foundation President’s and UNICEF special prizes, respectively. In addition, the TV proposal division recognized Myanmar’s A Letter to Jejara (PS Films Production) and Colombia’s Let’s Play (Cantoalegre Corporation).