The Video Grand Prize-winning work "The Last Chapter" is a dignified non-fiction work. The female protagonist has settled down in Canada after her international marriage. She reflects on her long estrangement from her father in Japan, who was a stubborn man, and tells the story of three generations of a family separated by an ocean.
The short last chapter of the memoir her father wrote before he died is about his family. Her father was never close to her when she was young but he welcomed his granddaughter (her daughter) and there still existed their family ties. At last she is ready to celebrate his life, and close the last chapter of his memoir.
Telling this story about her father also meant looking back at and reevaluating herself. The video artist's last words leave a deep impression in our hearts: "I know there was love. Now what was a rift is a bridge to a new chapter."
Judge Susumu Hani lauded the work, saying "this is an outstanding entry which, by focusing exclusively on the protagonist's own family, is able to paint a vivid portrait of the strangeness of the human character."

Following on from last year, also this year a young woman from Osaka claimed the Video Grand Prize. The university student who made this video has recently only experienced bad things, but she tells herself "there are good things and bad things in the world and the pluses and minuses add up to zero."
The creator combines scenes showing events in her daily life with hand-drawn animations and a narration to tell the story of what she feels. It is a masterpiece that shows the experience of everyday life through the spirit of a girl from Osaka who is full of youth and brightness, and it moves along at a good pace.
Judge Makoto Shiina praised this work as symbolic of this year's TVF, in which the young generation's contribution stood out, saying "I don't know if the video artist just let her feelings out and filmed them or whether she meticulously calculated the video in advance, but ... currently in the TVF this kind of youthful strength is at an amazing level."

In TVF2008 many entries were received which looked at how the ability to record and communicate with video have become firmly rooted in the front line of education and are being utilized in a variety of ways or thought about in the best approach to education. Many of these entries also won prizes. One of these works, "Opportunities to Study Are Disappearing - From an Actual Scene of a Night School -" is a documentary that asks direct questions about the problems occurring in the front line of education in Japan and was chosen to receive the JVC Grand Prize.
Night time senior high schools are currently being shaken by mergers and closures. There are students in night schools that face a variety of difficult circumstances and do their best to overcome their handicaps. These kinds of places of education are currently in a crisis that could lead to their extinction.
In response to an appeal from a night school educator, the video looks at the actual situation on the ground through the same eyes as the teacher. It shows us circumstances confronting students who are denied a school education and losing the place where they belong, and examines the starting point of education.
Judge Isao Takahata said in his assessment of the work "it has persuasive force because it hints at specific contemporary answers to questions such as "What is a school?" and "What is necessary in a school?"

Once again the young generation's contributions stood out, even more than last year. Six works produced by junior high school students in junior high school broadcasting clubs and so forth won Excellence Awards or were designated Selected Works and 47 works by people in their teens and twenties won prizes overall, so this demographic made great strides to win nearly half of all the prizes.
"Don't Forget" (Suginami Municipal Higashihara Junior High school Broadcasting Club; Tokyo/ Excellence Award) is a documentary examining the prejudice and discrimination shown to sufferers of HansenÕs disease. The Broadcasting club's activities have increased the number of people who appreciate the importance of empathy and respect for human rights.
"Video Poet: From Sone Tideland" (Kitakyushu Municipal Sone Junior High School Broadcasting Club; Fukuoka/ Excellence Award) looks at the creatures living in a tideland in order to raise serious problems through by examining of the interaction between people and nature, ecological changes, and the causes for worsening pollution.
Looking at examples of attention-getting works by young people, "Registration" (Seiya Sato; age 19; Self-employed; Tokyo/ Excellence Award) is a short and surprising dramatic work which reconstructs a shoplifting incident in a convenience store from the perspective of five people who were at the scene.
"The Dandelion Sister" (Yusuke Sakamoto; age 22; Student; Kanagawa/ Excellence Awards) meticulously portrays the emotions experienced by sisters through a doll animation, and "is a powerful work which skillfully depicts the feelings people have during adolescence" (Judge Takahata).
Looking at works from abroad, once again we received many works from the young generation in Asia. Five of the 11 winners of Excellence Awards from overseas were works by young people in their twenties from South Korea, China, or Hong Kong.

Women in their twenties have won the Video Grand Prize at TVF for four years in a row beginning with "Grainy Days" (Chieko Oki; then 24 years old) in the 27th TVF in 2005, followed by "Fledge" (Sawako Nakai; then 23 years old) in the 28th TVF, "Plays the air" (Seiko Uchida; then 23 years old) in the 29th TVF, and this year with "An Assertion from a Modern 21-Year-Old Woman" (Yuki Kurokawa; 21 years old). Since 2001 women in their twenties have won the Video Grand Prize six out of eight times.
In recent years young women have gained notice in the literary world by winning a lot of literary awards, and they are also rising to prominence in the field of video production. It is apparent that sensibilities and viewpoints unique to women are coming into full bloom in the field of video production and expanding the stage for new creations.
Nine works infused with the fresh talent of women in their twenties won prizes including the Video Grand Prize-winning work and Selected Works. Examples include "Hansel's Moon Town" (Yuri Nakadaira: age 23; Company employee; Tokyo/ Excellence Award), an original fantasy work which employs special video effects in an English language drama with a non-Japanese cast. "Indian Club" (Mari Akutsu; age 27; Company employee; Tokyo/ Excellence Award), looks at an aspect of India through its investigation of the true nature of a foodstuff brought back from a trip to India.
In the introspective documentary "Homeroom" (Saori Adachi; age 23; Student; Kyoto/ Excellence Award), the video artist reexamines the relationship between herself and her family and the importance of each member of the family, and reevaluates herself.

While young people continue to make great strides, the senior generation also won a large number of prizes with video works infused with their life experiences. 18 works by video artists aged 60 or older won awards, and 13 of these were by artists aged 70 or older.
Even as the number of seniors who enjoy video production as a hobby in their free time steadily increases, each year there are more and more elaborate works at a level that exceeds a simple hobby, having distinctive themes and an original creative impulse, and strongly imbued with the spirit of the video artist.
"The Truth of Country Life" (Yoshio Fujii; age 69; Unemployed; Kanagawa/ Excellence Award) presents forthrightly and without embellishments the joys and pleasures experienced by an elderly husband and wife through their struggles as they realize escaping city life for a life in the country is not easy to do.
"A Story of a Widower" (Shonosuke Shukuya; age 77; Unemployed; Ishikawa/ Selected Work) is a work playfully portraying the feelings of a man who continues to be confused by women, even in old age. "Straight My Way" (Masafumi Masuoka; age 83; Unemployed; Ehime/ Selected Work) is an elaborate personal history in which the video artist looks back on 50 years of building tofu-makers, and depicts the hard time of developing the latest automatic tofu production line that he designed himself.
The creator of "Farewell (Part 1: Farewell, Part 2: Traces)" was the oldest entrant this year and he won a prize (Tadashi Orino; age 91; Unemployed; Aomori/ Selected Work). His pet birds, Nokko and Koro, come to the end of their lives, and the video artist shows images of when he was separated from them. He thinks deeply about how to face his own death which will come soon. It is an emotional work which expresses sadness and loneliness without affectation.

In video works by individuals, naturally the most familiar and important subject is the "family." It also seems that examining one's family presents an opportunity to examine oneself. Looking at works submitted from within Japan this year, the most common theme "myself and family" was dealt with by 30% of the entries. Many of the prize-winning works, including Video Grand Prize-winner "The Last Chapter" had family as their major subject matter or theme.
The documentary "Reunion after 59 Years Old" (Ke Yue; age 34; Company employee; Tokyo/ Excellence Award) portrays the feelings of the video artist's mother as she travels to China, Japan, and the United States to seek a reunion with the father she hasn't seen since she was a young child and depicts her ties to her family.
In the documentary "At Dusk" (Zenji Iwashita; age 63; Self-employed; Hiroshima/ Selected Work) the video artist looks back on his own life of over sixty years while looking after his mother who lives alone in his childhood home.
"Endless War (Three Sorrows and Encounters)" (Lim Jae-Wook; age 24; Student; South Korea/ Excellence Award) tells the story of a family separated during the Korean War, with part of the family in North Korea and part in South Korea, and their sorrow which continues to this day.
In the work "Bonds" (Mahito Sonobe; age 58; Teacher; Hokkaido/ Excellence Award) the video artist, who was a teacher to siblings, retraces the steps of the siblings who led wild lives when they were junior high school students, but subsequently got back on the straight and narrow and grew up to the point where they were supporting a family. It examines the nature of family ties.

In recent years strengthening interest in providing entertainment has been one of the trends in individual video content production. Reflecting this, 33 works classified as dramas won prizes this year. They accounted for one-third of all the prize-winning works. In particular, 20 out of 40, or one-half of the international works which won prizes were dramas.
All of these works brought out the special characteristics of individuals or groups and had a distinctive flavor not seen in television dramas.
Looking at the Excellence Awards, "Ladenhüter (Shop Owner)" (Felix Stienz; age 24; Film maker; Germany) is an outstanding high-level drama with exquisite production values, portraying a small shop and the neighborhood people.
"DEMAIN LA VEILLE (Waiting for Yesterday)" (Julien Lecat & Sylvain Pioutaz; age 27/22; Film maker; France) is a surreal drama in which the hero tries to move forward in the right direction in a world in which everything is moving in the opposite direction.
"FENCE" (AUNTIES AND UNCLES; Malaysia) is a drama in which two children develop a friendship by exchanging letters with each other through the fence between their houses.
"Stamping" (Seo Dong-Heon; age 26; Student; South Korea) is a serious drama which examines the problems of disabled people sharply through a story beginning with the lifestyles of two men, and ends in a shocking conclusion. There were many powerful works from overseas.
Four dramatic works from within Japan also won Excellence Awards. In addition to the aforementioned "Registration", "Hansel's Moon Town", and "Homeroom", there was also "Blue Sky, Night Sky, Starry Sky" (Yu Katsumata; age 26; Part-timer; Kanagawa), a short drama revolving around the friendship and love of two girls who are good friends.