Are you ready for some amazing short films? It's time again for Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia!
This festival is an Academy Award-accredited festival, meaning the winner of the best short awards in the competition, as well as the non-fiction competition, is eligible for nomination in the short film categories of the Academy Awards the next year.
This year, over 200 films were selected out of 5,720 films that were submitted from 126 countries and regions around the world.
This year‘s festival theme is "Meta Cinema: Transcend, Discover, Begin." And one of the opening short films of the online venue is Boy Sprouted—featuring a script written by artificial intelligence! This is a first in Japan.
The festival was founded in 1999 as the Short Shorts Film Festival (SSFF). In 2004, SSFF added a program for Asian short films and established Short Shorts Film Festival Asia with the support of the Governor of Tokyo. Now, the combination of the two festivals takes place annually in Tokyo as Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, one of the largest short film festivals in Asia. It's happening now, from Thursday, April 28, to Thursday, June 30, 2022.
We're big fans of this festival because of all the eyes it gets on the films that compete. Some of the Emerging Japanese Filmmakers have their shorts available now online.
To start, we want to highlight some films from the "Japanese Filmmakers on the Rise" category. Check out some of the lineup below! Visit the site for more.
Check Out 2022 SSFF & ASIA's Japanese Filmmakers on the Rise
We wanted to highlight some of the Japanese films and filmmakers on the rise. These people have their shorts available to watch right now online. So if any of them spark your interest, go check them out!
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Blood Ties
A bus accident forces an emergency room doctor to make an impossible choice, either save the life of a young boy, or his elderly mother- or lose them both.
Ken Ochiai / 0:07:05 / Japan & United States / Drama / 2021
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Half Kanneth
Ken and Jo are adolescent Japanese-American, and have been imprisoned in the Manzanar War Relocation Camp for three years since the start of the war. After the death of their father, they escape internment to find their Caucasian mother…
Ken Ochiai / 0:22:00 / Japan & United States / Drama / 2008
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Frog In The Well
Joe leaves Tokyo for the first time in 10 years to take a trip across Japan. He travels throughout Japan, Wakkanai, Biwako, and Okinawa. The people he meets along the way, the food and culture, and the trip all help Joe to develop inner strength as a young man.
Ken Ochiai / 0:15:00 / Japan / Drama / 2011
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
A Warm Spell
Nao gave up his dream of painting to take over the family-run post office. His older brother, Masanobu, left home to become a doctor. When their mother's funeral brings the two brothers together again, they are forced to confront their old conflicts and resentments.
Toshimichi Saito / 0:25:00 / Japan / Drama / 2014
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Duet
Will, a gifted oboe player, suffers from stage fright. His one joy is to play along with a violinist who performs outside his window everyday. Will's encounter with the violinist gives him the courage to perform in front of others & a new outlook in life.
Toshimichi Saito / 0:12:57 / Japan & United States / Drama / 2010
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
The Soundman’s Love
Dustin, a sound technician, fosters a secret love for an actress he meets on set. In order to intercept in the kiss scene between the actress and an obnoxious Bollywood actor, Dustin takes action…
Toshimichi Saito / 0:08:47 / Japan & United States / Romance / 2011
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Gotham Jumble Parfait
A Yakuza-like man splattered with blood sits face-to-face with a younger man dripping with cream soda. A gun on the table and a dead body on the floor. There's also an older waitress and a black customer. Confusion mounts as the man orders four parfaits.
Yuki Saito / 0:15:01 / Japan / Drama / 2015
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
A Butter Fly on Her Chest
Her parents’ divorce, her change in lifestyle by moving from Tokyo to the countryside, the parting with her grandmother who was her only source of comfort... To free herself from her confining world, she has a butterfly tattooed on her chest.
Yuki Saito / 0:14:55 / Japan / Drama / 2012
Credit: Courtesy of SSFF & ASIA
Deep blue
Yukiko reluctantly returns home with her son Haruki for the 13th anniversary of her mother's death. Her family makes traditional hand-dyed cloth so her father and brother's hands are a deep blue color. At first her parents aren't very welcoming or receptive and she begins to regret returning home.
Kazuhito Nakae / 0:20:00 / Japan / Drama / 2011
If you want to check out more from the festival, visit them and watch the shorts online!
