Mt. Head (Atama Yama), directed and animated by Yamamura Koji, was nominated as the best animated short film for the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003. It won prizes in a number of countries, including the Grand Prix Annecy for short film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. That festival is the oldest and largest of its kind in the world.

Yamamura began making animated films when he was in junior high school, and since graduating from Tokyo Zokei University, he has worked mainly on animated short films for children. Mt. Head has been acclaimed in many countries, and is fun entertainment for children and adults alike.

The original story comes from rakugo (traditional Japanese comic monologue performed on stage), and Yamamura says he has been interested in it since elementary school. The story, called Atama Yama, is pure nonsense. A very stingy man swallows some cherry pits rather than throw them away, and one of them sprouts on top of his head. The tree grows, and when it blooms, noisy people come to have a good time under the blossoms. The man gets angry and uproots the tree, but soon a pond forms in the hollow, and other people come to fish and row boats. The man gets so annoyed with this that he throws himself into the pond.

Yamamura took the story and gave it a modern setting. He did almost all of the drawings himself — more than 10,000 images in all. His 10-minute film is accompanied by song and a traditional instrument called the shamisen. The pictures are done by hand, and the slight flickering effect adds unique warmth to the film, something that could not have been achieved by computer graphics, the main trend these days in animated film.

Yamamura says, "The imaging techniques seem to impress viewers more than the story, and have a special power of their own. In longer films the storyline is considered important, but in short ones an artistic touch is vital."

He insists on calling his works animation, not animé: "In the English-speaking world, all Japanese mangatype animation is called 'animé.' But animation can be much more than just a manga in movie form — we can use a wide range of techniques, manipulating puppet-like dolls, modeling clay, moveable pieces of cut paper, and more. Those techniques have added meaning to many animated films. In Japan, it's common to say 'animé,' keeping the word short, but I aim for animation, in the broad sense of the word, which means 'giving life to something.'That's why I don't like my films to be called animé."

Yamamura's eyes light up when he adds, "My goal is to keep on making short, highly artistic, animated films."