Jonathan Hagard

“Romancecar” is a commissioned work for Odakyu and the Romancecar Museum. It is an 8-minute immersive VR experience that explores themes of memory, generational shifts, and the transition into modernity.
The film follows a young woman traveling alone for the first time aboard the famous Romancecar train. As she journeys, she recalls the story of her father, described as a “train nerd” shaped by his own era. The narrative weaves together his deepening fantasies and his eventual acceptance of the modern era, which allows him to let his daughter go so she can begin her own story.

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Festivals
Perugia Social Film Festival 2025
Anidox XR 2025
Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025
Joburg Film Festival 2025
Animatex Egypt 2025
Kaohsiung VR Spring Festival 2025
FIVARS Toronto 2024
Kaohsiung Film Festival 2024
Cinemasia Amsterdam 2024
Guanajuato International Film Festival 2024
Beijing International Film Festival 2024
Beyond the Frame Festival 2023

“Replacements” depicts a Javanese family living in a fictional neighborhood in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia.
Inspired by people and places that truly exist, they are witnesses of this congested metropolis’s urban, environmental, political, and cultural transformations from about 1980 to 2020.
A praise of the satisfaction of impermanent things, it tells about the dented yet peaceful transition of an old traditional village to an uprooted megapolis through three generations.
This experience aims to appreciate and introspect Jakarta’s recent history through the eyes of an ordinary family that most of Indonesians, from children to elder people, can identify with.

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Awards and Festivals
45th Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2021 - CRISTAL OF THE BEST VR WORK
31st World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb 2021 - SPECIAL MENTION
24th Japan Media Arts Festival 2021 - EXCELLENCE AWARD
24th Guanajuato International Film Festival 2021 - BEST VR VISUAL NARRATIVE
22nd Digicon6 Japan 2020 - TOPIC AWARD
14th Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International 2021 - VR STORYTELLING AWARD
14th Short Film Festival Cologne 2020 - VR AWARD
8th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival 2021 - JAPAN GRAND PRIX
8th International Documentary Festival Visioni dal Mondo 2022 - PRESS SPECIAL MENTION
Beyond The Frame Festival 2021 - GRAND PRIX
SIGGRAPH 2021 - VR Theater - BEST IN SHOW
Liberec Anifilm 2021 - BEST VR
Viborg Anidox - VR JURY PRIZE
Kaohsiung Film Festival 2021 - VR360 AWARD
Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival 2021 - BEST DOCUMENTARY / EMPATHY AWARD
4K・VR Tokushima Movie Festival 2021 - BEST VR
77th Venice International Film Festival 2020 - Venice VR Expanded

Osaka Momoyo invites you to dive into over 400 years of Osaka’s history and ride its dramatic ups and downs like a roller coaster. While the setting remains the same throughout, the eras shift and so do the people who appear in each one.
Osaka’s history doesn’t follow a straight, linear path. Like a pendulum, it swings through devastating fires, wars, and times of prosperity.
Yet in every era, the vitality of Osaka’s people has supported the city, enabling it to rise again and again.
I hope that those who experience this work can absorb that Osaka energy and walk away feeling uplifted, with a “que sera sera” spirit, ready to face whatever the future may bring…

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Release
Osaka Museum of Housing and Living, 2025.07.18 ~