Award-winners introduced the concept of the work or the process of creation and the Japan Media Arts Festival was summed up by Division in Award-winners Symposia.

Especially, the symposia of the Animation Division, held twice, drew attention. On February 25, director TOMINO Yoshiyuki, who was in charge of the Head Jury since last year, attended with HASHIMOTO Daisuke, who created floweryand FUJITA Junpei, who created seasons A scene in which TOMONO asked them pointed questions on their situations of production or concept of their works was observed.

Also in the symposium held on February 27, a talk between KAWAMOTO Kihachiro, the author of THE BOOK OF THE DEAD and YAKAMURA Koji, who created The Old Crocodile was held along with a showing of their works. The symposium was a huge success with standing room only since both panelists were representative animation artists in Japan.

Theme Symposia in which the media arts were discussed from various points of view such as the current situation of media education in Japan, involvement of technology and arts, the border line of pop culture, products, Techno Gadgets and arts, and so on.

On Thursday, March 2, the Device Art Symposium: “Will Techno Gadgets become an art?” was held. Every time panelists introduced interesting original work, the full audience let out a laugh or exclamation. The discussion touched on the subject of how high-volume production capability or decay-resistance of gadgets impacted on the value as an art. The presenter KUSAHARA Machiko commented “the symposium always ends when the discussion reaches the most interesting part” and it was filled with absorbing topics which were impossible to cover in 2 hours.