The murakami award
Celebrating visionaries who inspire the next generation
Jimmy Murakami, 1933-2014, was one of the founding fathers of Irish animation. He was a key figure in the establishment of the thriving Irish animation industry that we know today.
In 1965 he launched his own company, Murakami-Wolf Productions, with business partner Fred Wolf. Murakami settled permanently in Ireland while working on Roger Corman’s, ‘The Red Baron’ in 1971. His work in the 1986 feature, ‘When the Wind Blows‘ produced some of the animator’s most acclaimed work with ‘The Snowman‘ remaining an enduring children’s favourite to this day. Murakami Films opened in Dublin in 1989, with the studio producing popular television series such as ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘. Cathal Gaffney of Brown Bag Films, called Murakami “a founding father of Irish Animation”.
I have been to hundreds of film festivals, all over the globe, for what seems to be the last hundred years, and in my opinion the Dingle Film Festival is the best among them all
Recipients of The Murakami Award
- 2025 Andrew Fitzpatrick
- 2024 Michael Algar
- 2023 Steve Woods
- 2022 Eileen Bell
- 2021 Rob Cullen
- 2019 Nora Twomey
- 2018 Darragh O’Connell & – Cathal Gaffney
- 2017 Aidan Hickey
- 2016 Don Bluth & Gary Oldman
- 2015 Tomm Moore
- 2014 Richie Baneham
- 2013 Jimmy T. Murakami
The Story Behind The Murakami Design
Jimmy T. Murakami is known affectionately as the founding father of animation in Ireland.
Redesigned in 2021, the inspiration behind the unique design of the Award came from Jimmy’s love for Irish wildlife, the wind for change that he brought to Irish animation and his own light and ethereal personality. The image of of the bog cotton blowing in the breeze evokes the idea that Jimmy is still with us, blowing in, out and around us all.
