Watts of Tokyo wins Grand Prix in Film for Shiseido’s “High School Girl?” at Epica Awards
In the 2015 Epica Awards there were Grand Prix winners from Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Austria. In the Film category Watts of Tokyo picked up a Grand Prix for Shiseido’s “High School Girl?”.
The Film grand prix by Watts of Tokyo for Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido proves that anyone can be pretty with the right make-up. It opens with a classroom full of pretty girls and then spools back in time to reveal that they are actually boys, magically transformed by the power of Shiseido products. The film’s twist delivers a surprise the first time around, and repays repeated viewing with its layers of detail and superb direction.
Masato Kosukegawa, Creative Director, Shiseido Company, Limited said, “It is a great honor for all of our team to have been selected as the Film Grrand Prix for Epica 2015 and we are sincerely grateful for the recognition from the jury. We especially appreciate the director, Show Yanagisawa and the director of photography, Jin Ohashi and also the school “girls” who showed their great patience to strike a pose and stand-still while we were shooting for 7 hours. Thanks also to our make-up artists who showed their special abilities, we hope that many who watched will feel the happiness through the basic concept of the film : the power of make-up.”
Jury president Olivier de Montchenu commented, “This is an incredibly powerful idea, extremely well executed – it’s almost a short feature film. The way it plays with notions of gender is both topical and striking.”