Asia short film festival spotlights tales of diversity, dystopia
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- This year's Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, starting next week, is highlighting tales of diversity and dystopia amid the backdrop of a fractured post-pandemic world.
With the theme "creative active generative," organizers said they hope the two-week festival from Wednesday will be a "catalyst" to spark new relationships between audiences and films, and creators and businesses.
The festival, founded by Japanese actor Tetsuya Bessho in 1999, is the only international short film festival in Asia featuring five competitions whose winners will receive a prize of 600,000 yen ($4,200) each and are eligible for the following year's Academy Awards.
This year's films include French production "Find The Boy," in which a group of friends lay one of their own -- Charly, a young transgender man -- to rest. As they pay their respects, Charly's brother Victor remembers him differently, under a different name.
In a special program exploring the relationship between artificial intelligence and filmmaking, German film "Transformation" follows the story of beings known as Drakzuls, who in the distant future are in search of a new home after their planet has been destroyed.
In "One Day I Will Hug You," a joint Swedish, Qatari and Palestinian production, a father returns to Gaza after 10 years in Norway, before which he spent 20 years in Israeli prisons. He shows his emotionally distant daughter, Mai, letters he wrote to her while he was incarcerated.
Taking place in hybrid form with both online and in-person screenings at several venues in Tokyo through June 11, the festival will showcase about 250 films selected from 4,592 submissions in 108 different countries and regions.
This year will see the debut of the "Horror and Suspense" category, which features short films by 11 Japanese directors who are in the running for a 500,000 yen cash prize.
Other features include Japanese film "Nigemizu" by Akiko Isobe, in which a woman's plot to murder her house guest is interrupted when the prospective victim arrives too early, and "Marion," produced by Hollywood actor Cate Blanchett, which follows the story of France's only female bull-jumper.
Some films are already available to watch online until June 30.
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