The 8th International Hiroshima Animation Festival has awarded its top three prizes to National Film Board of Canada films. The Grand Prize was awarded to Annecy winner and Oscar nominee WHEN THE DAY BREAKS from Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. In addition, Torril Cove's MY GRANDMOTHER IRONED THE KING'S SHIRTS took home the special jury prize and Eugene Federinko and Rose Newlove's VILLAGE OF IDIOTS was awarded the Renzo Kinoshita Prize. The festival opened on Thursday, August 24 and concluded Monday, August 28, 2000. This year’s event featured special programs on the work of Tadahito Mochinaga; Turkish animation; a screening of LOTUS LATERN; and a retrospective of Feodor Khitruk. Seminars on the creation of animation were led by world-renowned artists Bärbel Neubauer, Jarques Drouin and Paul de Nooijer. Plus, puppet aficionados MacKinnon and Saunders led a seminar on how to construct puppets.