We Are Aliens Film, Eri Short Anime, Candy Caries Win at Ottawa Int'l Animation Festival
NOTHING NEW's We Are Aliens (Ware Ware wa Uchūjin) anime film, Honami Yano's Eri animated short, and Tomoki Misato and Wit Studio's original television anime Candy Caries were all awarded at the 50th Anniversary Awards Ceremony of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, on Saturday. We Are Aliens won the Grand Prize for Animated Feature, Eri won the Best Animated Short Award, and Candy Caries won at the Animation for Young Audiences 7+ Competition.
We Are Aliens opened in Japan on Friday. Kōhei Kadowaki directed the film. The film screened at the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and screened in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which ran from June 21 to 27. Aside from the Ottawa International Film Festival (OIAF), the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) also screened the film. The film will screen in the "Japanese Animation Special: Masterpieces of Madness, Exhilarating Prospects 12+1" category of the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which will take place on October 6-15.
Kadowaki, who created the second BEASTARS season's ending sequence and music videos for YOASOBI, served as the film's planner, scriptwriter, director, storyboard artist, and editor. Yaffle — who previously produced music for Fujii Kaze, Kenshi Yonezu, and others — composed the music. NOTHING NEW planned and produced the film, and French studio Miyu Productions (Ghost Cat Anzu, A New Dawn) collaborated on the production, after joining on the project in June 2025. adieu performs the film's theme song "Sasakure" (Split).
Director Honami Yano describes Eri:
In a world where dairy cows must bear calves to survive, Eri, a Holstein, falls in love with another cow.
Her sighs linger through sleepless nights — will they find their way to the one she loves?
Yano (A Bite of Bone, ChromosomeSweetheart) wrote the script, animated, and directed the Japanese-French production Eri short. It is an adaptation of Kasumi Asakura's 2008 Hoka ni Dare ga iru (Who Else is There?) novel. The short had its world premiere at the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival held on May 14.
The Candy Caries original television anime premiered within the Yoru no Brunch variety program on TBS on April 15. Amazon Prime Video streams the anime.
Misato (Pui Pui Molcar) and Wit Studio are credited for the original work. Misato is directing the series at TORUKU from WIT STUDIO. Kenshirō Morii (Anime-Gataris, Grand Blues!) serves as assistant director. Chiaki Nishiaka (The Ancient Magus' Bride, Shinkalion Change the World) writes the script and Akari Saitō (Etotama, Spy×Family) edits the series. Keigo Hoashi (Summer Time Rendering, Dusk maiden of Amnesia) composes the music.
The Candy Caries anime is a slapstick comedy about Ame, a child who loves sweets, and the tooth decay that lives in her mouth called Caries. Caries lives a carefree life inside Ame's mouth and even calls her "Mama," and Ame's body is always at Caries' mercy.
Candy Caries was first revealed as a stop-motion anime promotional video in 2021 after Wit Studio had established a stop-motion studio with Misato in December 2020.
According to Misato, he used plastic board and acrylic for Candy Caries, and describes it as a semi three-dimensional animation that's "flat like an illustration, but plump and thick."
Source: Press release
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