News & Reports

The largest international short film festival in Asia, accredited by the Academy Awards®
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2023

Who will be the candidate for the next Oscar？
The judges for Academy Awards® accredited SSFF & ASIA 2023
Animation Competition are Announced

Actor Yu Inaba, Animation director andsupervisor Kotono Watanabe &
President of Digital Hollywood University Tomoyuki Sugiyama

Juries will select the best short award among 23 nominations
from 474 works of 53 countries and regions around the world

Asia’s one of the largest International Short Film Festival, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) animation category has been collaborating with Digital Hollywood Co., Ltd.
This animation competition is recognized by the Academy Awards® and the winner will be eligible for an Oscar following year.
SSFF & ASIA 2023 will showcase the “now” of animation works of all genres such as stop motion and hand-painting as well as CG.
For 2023, we received 474 submissions from 53 countries and regions around the world. We selected 23 from them, and combined them with 4 special screenings. All 27 works will be screened and distributed. *Some of the films will be streamed only in Japan.

https://shortshorts.org/2023/program/program_cat/anime/

We are pleased to announce that actor Yu Inaba, animation director and
supervisor Kotono Watanabe & president of Digital Hollywood University Tomoyuki Sugiyama have been selected as judges for the Animation Competition.
The winner of the award will be announced at the award ceremony to be held on June 26th (Monday) .

Prior to the screening at the Tokyo venue, the animation program will be streaming from Tuesday, June 6th. It will include “IN QUANTO A NOI (FROM OUR SIDE)” narrated by Wim Wenders, 2023 Academy Award nominee “Ice Merchants and Digital Hollywood presents Digital Frontier Gran-Prix 2023 Best Animation Award winner ”Horizon”.

from left :Digital Hollywood presents Digital Frontier Gran-Prix 2023 Best Animation Award “Horizon”（Director：Taiga Kawazoe）, Narrated by Wim Wenders “IN QUANTO A NOI (FROM OUR SIDE)”（Director：Simone Massi ）,
2023 Academy Award Nominee for Best Animated Short Film “Ice Merchants”（Director：João Gonzalez）,
“HIDARI”（ Director ： Masashi Kawamura / Iku Ogawa ）

Yu Inaba 　(Actor）

Born on January 12, 1991 in Kanagawa Prefecture, he made his acting debut in 2010 in the drama “Clone Baby” (TBS) and has appeared in numerous dramas, movies, and stage productions.He is scheduled to appear in the MBS/TBS Drama-ism series “Tomorrow, I’m Someone’s Girlfriend Season 2,” which will start airing on May 2, and the movie “Yossu, Okaasen, See You Later,” in which he plays the lead role, will be released on June 16. will be released on 6/16. She is the navigator of
J-WAVE’s “ALL GOOD FRIDAY,” which airs live every Friday from 11:30 a.m.

Kotono Watanabe　(Animation director and supervisor)

Born in Gifu Prefecture. After graduating from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, he joined Madhouse, an animation production company. In 2012, he directed his first T.V. series, “BTOOOM!”, which was highly acclaimed overseas for its combination of psychological battles between characters and action. His storyboarding and directing credits include the T.V. series “Chihayafuru” (2011, 2013, 2019), “Ore Monogatari! (2015), “No Game, No Life” (2014), “Hanayamata” (2014), “Prince of Stride” (2016), and the theater production “No Game, No Life Zero” (2017). His latest film is the theatrical animated feature “Gold Country, Water Country,” which was released in the spring of 2023.

Tomoyuki Sugiyama （President, Digital Hollywood University
(Ph.D. in Engineering)）

Born in Tokyo, 1954.  Worked as a visiting researcher at MIT Media Lab for
 3 years from 1987.  After working as the chief researcher at the International Media Research Foundation in 1990 and a full-time instructor at Nihon University Junior College in 1993, established Digital Hollywood Co., LTD. in October, 1994. Opened Digital Hollywood Graduate School (Graduate School of Digital Content) in 2004 which is the first graduate school for specialists run by a corporation in Japan. Opened Digital Hollywood University (School of Digital Communications) in the following year and currently serving as the President of the University.
The e-book “Digital Stream- Re-Designing the Future” (new edition) was published in March 2022.

【Special Screenings】
Narrated by Wim Wenders

『IN QUANTO A NOI (FROM OUR SIDE)』
Director ：Simone Massi / 0:05:00 / Italy / Animation / 2022

History flows, the darkness wets our clothes.

【Special Screenings】
Digital Hollywood presens Digital Fronteer Gran-Prix 2023 Best Animation Award

『Horizon』
Director ： Taiga Kawazoe /06:00 / Japan / Animation / 2023

An astronaut’s daughter is determined to become an astronaut to see the world her father once did before he died on duty.

【Special Screenings】
2023 Academy Award Nominee for Best Animated Short Film

『Ice Merchants』 
Director ：João Gonzalez / 14:33/ Portugal / Animation / 2022

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from thier vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff to go to the village on the ground, far away, where they sell the ice they produce daily.

【Special Screenings】

『HIDARI』 
Director ： Masashi Kawamura/Iku Ogawa / 5:32 /Japan/ Animation /2022

The legendary sculptor Hidari Jingoro is traveling with his mechanical arm and his companion Sleeping Cat to avenge those who betrayed him, cut off his right arm, and killed his foster parent. Then he finally finds Inumaru, one of the men he sought to take revenge on.

Narrated by singer and actress Marianne Faithfull.

『WILD SUMMON』
Director ：KARNI ARIELI, SAUL FREED / 14:38 / UK/  Animation / 2023

A natural history fantasy film, following the dramatic life cycle of the wild salmon in human form. Narrated by Marianne Faithfull. A Bfi short film by karni and Saul

A film about the events of 1920 that strengthened ties between Poland and Japan

『The Bridge』
Director ：Izumi Yoshida / 22:30 / Poland / Animation / 2022

The film’s inspired by events of the year 1920 that’d brought two nations closer: Poland and Japan. The story is told from a 10-year-old boy’s perspective, showing the history of orphans who lost their families and had to rush into manhood to fight for their lives.

Winner of awards at film festivals in Korea, Argentina, Australia and other countries A story of encounters and friendship depicted in “The End of the World

『The World’s After 』　
Director ：Florentina Gonzalez / 11:15 / France / Animation / 2022

Mankind no longer exists, only Fluor and Carlix remain, two ghosts in sportswear. They wander among the remains of an extinct civilization, one in search of WiFi, the other in search of the head of a giant cetacean. A story of encounter and friendship, punctuated by a context: that of the end of the world.

Awarded at Clermont-Ferrand, the world’s largest international short film festival

『Scale』
Director ：Joseph Pierce / 15:00 / France/ UK / Belgium / Czech Republic / Animation / 2022

Driving along the motorway, Will loses his sense of scale. As his crippling drug addiction deepens, he struggles to unpick the sequence of events that led to his predicament, before he’s lost forever.

Director also participated in the production of Wes Anderson’s film

『Balcony Cacophony』
Director ：Quentin Haberham / 5:00 / The Netherlands / Animation / 2022

When a rich lady with a passion for topiary must swap her mansion with lush gardens for a tiny council flat, she finds it difficult to cope with her new neighbor and his strange hobbies.

Nominated by Ryo Hirano, a remarkable Japanese animation director who has been nominated in more than 20 film festivals around the world.

『Krasue』　
Director ： Ryo Hirano / 12:06 / Japan / Animation / 2021

In a town of SouthEast Asia, a Yakuza is in trouble with local gangs, then he meets a ghost called Krasue.