In 1999, Shinkai released "She and Her Cat". It is a five-minute short movie that is black and white. It won many awards. It won the grand prize at the 12th DoGA CG Animation contest (2000). The short movie is about the life of a cat. It is from the cat's point of view. Shinkai quit his job at Falcom after winning the prize. He began making a new movie about a girl in space, which was called "Voices of a Distant Star". After, he released his first full movie. It was called "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" and was released in Japan on November 20, 2004. His next movie was called "5 Centimeters per Second" and was released on 3 March 2007. It consists of three short films called "Cherry Blossom", "Cosmonaut", and "5 Centimeters Per Second".