Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia is an Academy Award-accredited festival. This means 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.
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. This year's fest takes place June 11-21.
We are coming up on the festival's opening, but shorts in the Cinematic Tokyo category are already streaming online. Founded in 2017, the Cinematic Tokyo program showcases short films that share the various charms of Tokyo.
Check out the lineup below!
'Embrace Change (Connect To The Wild)'Credit: Taku Ohmoto
A Midsummer Day's Dream
Shigeyuki Komatsubara / 0:15:50 / Japan/Drama / 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic casts a dark shadow over the world. Japan declares a state of emergency and many shops are forced to shutter. Years later, two people reunite and reminisce about those days. Are those scenes on a rooftop reality or a manifestation of their dreams and wishes?
And Then
Jenn Ravenna Tran / 0:17:54 / United States/Romance / 2020
And Then is about two women who meet and grow closer to each other through their insomnia and art. The story follows Mana, a Japanese-American woman who arrives in Tokyo seeking to find a break from her life as an artist, and Haru, a Japanese woman who dreams of becoming an artist herself one day.
'Begin Again'Credit: Yasu Fujinami
Begin Again
Yasu Fujinami / 0:03:10 / Japan/Documentary / 2020
2020 is the year for Tokyo to welcome guests from all over the world. However, the city is eerily quiet, as if the time has stopped. Our documentation of the beautiful moments of the city will sure be the driving force to overcome the unprecedented crisis. Look how our beautiful Tokyo is re-emerging.
Embrace Change (Connect to the Wild)
Taku Ohmoto / 0:04:43 / Japan/Documentary / 2020
Ryo Haruyama is a performer who experiments with physical abilities using his body and works as a performance coach for his clients. This documentary follows his daily life in the pandemic. It also shows his energetic performance in a natural setting of Okutama in Tokyo.
'Farewell, Tokyo'Credit: Ben Wang
Farewell, Tokyo
Ben Wang / 0:13:28 / China & Japan/Documentary / 2021
A Chinese student studying in Tokyo has full of memories of the big city. However, with the corona pandemic, he has to go back to his country. What are his precious memories of Tokyo and his wish as he is on the way back home?
gloom
Emily San Pedro & Earl Standerford / 0:13:10 / Japan/Drama / 2021
A recluse is thrown into disarray when she finds herself in an unfamiliar place. As she attempts to make her way back home, her paranoia consumes her, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
Momentum Tokyo
Masaki Hani / 0:06:39 / Japan/Video Art / 2021
I shot various beautiful moments as season changes in Tokyo for over seven years using 4K camera. With corona pandemic continues, those precious moments like festivals, fireworks, and Helloween in Shibuya are unrealistic to us now. I pray for those ordinary days to come back soon.
Numbness
Koei Taga / 0:08:15 / Japan/Drama / 2016
A lonely guy who is about to lose his own emotion in Tokyo falls in love with a girl.
'Numbness'Credit: Koei Taga
Tokyo connection
Andrzej Rudz / 0:03:10 / Japan/Experimental / 2020
Five stories about living in Tokyo.
Tokyo Migration Coming of Age
Momio Yamamura / 0:18:30 / Japan/Drama / 2020
Sumiko Yagi is 38. She moves to Tokyo to change her ordinary existence and to challenge her ability in the big city. This is a story of Sumiko moving to Tokyo to start her life afresh with overblown expectation.
'Where Bibi Went'Credit: Tadasuke Kotani
Where Bibi Went
Tadasuke Kotani / 0:14:53 / Japan/Drama / 2020
Hinako lives with her cat, Bibi. When she opens up the front door to receive a package, Bibi runs away from the house. Hinako looks for Bibi as the pandemic continues on. During the search, she meets a youthful-looking woman but wearing old fashion clothes standing amongst the Tokyo highrises.
You were my Tokyo
Ryo Chita / 0:05:50 / Japan/Music Video / 2020
He left and never came back. She still remembers the tiny room where they lived together. What Tokyo means for her is not the Tokyo Tower or the Skytree, but it was those days together with him. Music video for "You were my Tokyo" by Goodnight Kosugi.
For more information, check out the Cinematic Tokyo website.
