Hello Maggie! Captures Prizes from Two Festivals

March 19, 2026

Hello Maggie!, the animated film adapted from the book by Shigeru Yabu and Willie Ito, who were incarcerated as children during World War II, captured the best short film award at the Tigertail Asian Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Fla., last weekend.

The film’s musical score by Italian composer Carlo Chiarotti was also named “Best Original Score” at the London Movie Awards.

Hello Maggie!, which was produced by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and directed by veteran animator Tony Tarantini, will be screened at two Southern California film festivals March 27-29. It will be shown at the WonderCon festival in at the Anaheim Convention Center and the Films of Remembrance festival in the Tateuchi Democracy Forum in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles on March 28 and at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute on March 29.

Logan Christie, Heart Mountain’s operations director, will present the film with Ito and Tarantini at both festivals and meet with potential distributors of the film to a wider audience.

Hello Maggie! was funded by a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites program of the National Park Service and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.

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Photo: Animator Willie Ito at the 2025 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage. Credit: Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation