Kōji Yamamura (山村 浩二, Yamamura Kōji, born June 4, 1964) is a Japanese independent animator who, after leaving a career as a background artist at an animation studio, directs, writes, edits, animates, creates the model sheets and background art for and sometimes produces his own short films and has worked on many commissions such as music videos, television advertisements, title sequences and station idents, both on his own and under or with other directors. He is also a regular illustrator of children's literature and textbooks.

His animation spans a variety of media, his earliest independent works mixing clay painting and stop motion with cels, but has latterly come to concentrate on traditional animation. Two of his most famous and acclaimed films are the Academy Award for Animated Short Film-nominated and Cristal d'Annecy-winning Mt. Head and the Ottawa Grand Prize and Ōfuji Noburō Award-winning A Country Doctor. His 2011 short film Muybridge's Strings was one of five animated shorts nominated for Genie Award.

Biography

Yamamura was born in Nagoya and studied painting at Tokyo Zokei University. His 2002 movie Mt. Head (Atama Yama) won the short film award for the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Grand Prize at the 2004 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films and was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Yamamura won the 2007 Ottawa Grand Prix with his animated adaptation of Franz Kafka's "A Country Doctor." Both of the films were included in the Animation Show of Shows.

Yamamura also held an exhibition at the Aichi Expo 2005.