Congratulations to my old sketch comedy cohort Yuri Lowenthal and Los Angeles manga publisher TokyoPop‘s Stu Levy and his co-director Steven Calcote on the success of their mockumentary Van Von Hunter!

The feature-length film screened at Hollywood’s MockFest film festival in Hollywood last month, and ended up winning Best Director and a special “audience award” for Best Film. Yuri Lowenthal, an accomplished voice-over actor, played the title character and was nominated for the What A Character themed award. The film was also an official selection at this past summer’s Fantasia International Film Festival in France.

You can buy the movie on DVD (in regular flavor or Special Edition 2-disc). The entire film is also available on Hulu:

Inspired by and based upon the manga series created by Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch, Van Von Hunter is a live-action comedy that follows its title character on a journey deep into the heart of manga and anime fandom. From the mythical world of Dikay, to the cold, hard streets of Hollywood, then across the ocean to Tokyo, this Van-tastic voyage is also filled with cameos of top manga and anime personalities as it embraces otaku culture around the globe.