Cherry and Virgin Wins a Jury Special Mention in Fantasia's Satoshi Kon Competition

A jury nod in Montreal

Cherry and Virgin has picked up the Special Mention of the Jury in the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival. The film's official account announced the win on July 27, placing it in the Satoshi Kon competition that runs inside Fantasia's Animation Plus section and describing Fantasia as one of North America's largest genre film festivals.

English-language coverage lines up with that. Anime News Network reported the same distinction on July 27, and the festival award roundup published by Eye For Film lists it in full as "Special Mention of the Jury: Cherry And Virgin (Japan), dir. Masanao Kawajiri." The framed citation the team photographed at the ceremony carries the same wording under the heading of the 2026 Satoshi Kon competition.

Where it sits in the animation slate

The Satoshi Kon Award is Fantasia's animation competition, named for the late director of Perfect Blue and Paprika. The top feature prize this year went elsewhere: Best Animated Feature was awarded to Blaise, directed by Jean-Paul Guigue and Dimitri Planchon, according to the same award roundup. The short film prizes went to Jorj Abou Mhaya's Jeem 1983, Kim Yeon-woo's Fingerbang, and Junar Kim's The End Of The End.

A special mention is not the headline trophy, but for a small independent Japanese feature it is a meaningful result in a field judged against international competition. Anime News Network notes the festival ran from July 16 to August 2 in Montreal, and that the film held its world premiere there in the Animation Plus section.

What the film is

Our catalog files Cherry and Virgin as a romance, and its premise is squarely a story about two people who have talked themselves out of intimacy. It follows Ryou, a 32 year old erotic manga artist with no experience with women, and Ami, a 28 year old fujoshi who holds a low opinion of real men. The film has been described by its own team as a nervous romance, and the visual approach is unusual: the leads are drawn in finished styles while the figures around them shade off into sketchbook roughs and crayon drawings, a device that reads as characters seen the way they draw themselves.

Anime News Network reports the feature is set to open in 2027. The project has been a long time coming. It was originally announced in 2021 and had once been slated to arrive in 2022, so the Fantasia run is the first time international audiences have been able to see it at all.