News & Reports

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2024” finally opened!

Riisa Naka, Yudai Chiba, Sota Fukushi, Win Morisaki, LiLiCo and more!

Gorgeous guests appeared at the opening ceremony!

7 awards including “Shibuya Diversity Award”  &

“U-25 Project” were announced

SSFF & ASIA held its  opening ceremony at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA (Shibuya Public Hall) on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 to celebrate the start of the festival. The festival will show approximately 270 films selected from more than 4,936 works gathered from about 114 countries and regions around the world based on this year’s theme “Illuminate Your Life” which can be enjoyed at the online venue and five other venues in Tokyo.

　At the beginning of the festival, the AI voice of Tetsuya Bessho, the festival’s representative, generated by “FutureVoice,” a voice synthesizing solution utilizing the latest AI technology of NTT TechnoCross Corporation of NTT Group, was used to introduce how to enjoy the festival in four languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese). “FutureVoice” uses state-of-the-art technology to generate a natural voice that is as natural and clear as a human voice. This technology, which can generate voice in multiple languages from existing voice data in the past, is expected to assist in the production of films that transcend national borders and disabilities, as it will lead to natural speaking performances in different languages and support for performances by people with hearing disorders.

At the ceremony, seven awards were presented: Shibuya Diversity Award, J-WAVE SOUND OF CINEMA Award, U-25 Project, Smartphone Competition, Amic Sign Award, and Illuminate SSFF & ASIA Movie Competition. Japan Airlines (JAL) was appointed as a partner of the U-25 Project and presented the international round-trip tickets as a supplementary prize to the winners of the Excellence Award.  In addition, at the Amic Sign Awards, it was also announced that a collaboration has begun to provide the “DAO Token Service,” a future form of crowdfunding, with the aim of realizing a “creator economy” environment where anyone can be a creator, transmitting and selling their work. For the Smartphone Competition. award, Ms. MEGUMI, who herself has directed a short film in 2022 and was a member of the jury in 2023, appeared as a presenter. She commented on the short films made with “smartphone shooting,” which is part of today’s culture, saying, “I was surprised by the cute colors, angle of view, and direction that didn’t make me feel that it was shot with a smartphone in a good way. The balance between the heartwarming story of a grown-up being rescued by his childhood self and the attention to detail in the images was wonderful.

In the 4th Actors Short Film Talk Session, Yudai Chiba, Riisa Naka, Sota Fukushi, and Win Morisaki, all of whom were nominated in the Japan category of the Live Action category, which leads to the Academy Awards, took the stage to talk about the challenges of directing a film while also being actors. They talked about the difficulties and interesting aspects of directing, as well as their thoughts on the film.

Ms. Naka, who took on the challenge of directing for the first time, said, “Just like motherhood, I didn’t realize how difficult it is to direct until I actually did it. I usually do editing on YouTube, so I really enjoyed the process of creating the video.” As for why Robert Akiyama was chosen for the film, she said, “I love his eye. Normally, I think he is funny, but I wanted to bring out a different side of him, so that’s why I chose him for this film. I also thought it would be more interesting if he didn’t have any lines, so I eliminated them. Mr. Fukushi, who was also directing for the first time, reflected on the making of the film: “Editing and sound were very difficult, but I enjoyed communicating with the actors.” As for the shocking twist at the end of the film, he said, “I didn’t think it would turn out this way. I decided on the main character at the beginning, put the events on the side streets, and left the rest to the main character’s path, which led to an unintended ending.” He explained the background of his innovative scriptwriting. Chiba, who is directing his second Actors Short Film, said, “As a director, it was difficult to think about how to respond to the questions I received on set and how to take them in. Editing is something I don’t usually get to do, so it was fun. Chiba added, “The first time I was just exploring, but this time I had many of the same staff members as last time, so I think we were able to discuss things more deeply. He also smiled and talked about his own growth. Lastly, Mr. Morisaki, who took on the challenge of creating a musical for the first time in the history of Actors Short Films, said, “I realized how difficult it is to convey the picture that comes into my head to someone else. It was a lot of fun working as a team to create something.” Regarding the reason why he asked Kazuo Ueda to write the script, he said, “I first wanted to make an original Japanese musical film, and when I saw Mr. Ueda’s original work in person, I decided intuitively and went straight to him. He put into print what I had been thinking internally and created a wonderful film.”

In addition, as the opening film of the festival, the world premiere of the short film “Goodbye for now.” by TUBE x GACKT, a unit that has recently released a collaborative song that has become a hot topic was shown. After the screening , a special video message from TUBE’s Wataru Maeda and GACKT was shown. Mr. Maeda said, “I am now in the last part of my 50s and have experienced parting with my loved ones. I created this song and completed the music video in the hope that it would make people think of those important people. I hope many people will see this work, which breathes new life into sound. GACKT commented, “I hope people will feel how precious it is to be with the people you love.”

　The Global Spotlight Award, which concluded the opening ceremony, was presented to “Stray Kids Raku-STAR (ROCK-STAR) SKZFLIX” starring the eight members of the popular idol group Stray Kids. “I am very honored to receive such an award at this world-class film festival,” said one of the members. They added, “We are very proud of the story we created with the members, which will create fun memories.”

The “Creators’ Meetup Lounge,” held for the first time in the lobby of the venue and aimed at developing the short film industry, was a place to weave the seeds of new projects, where short film fans, directors, and companies that support film culture exchanged information and had a lively time.

Tetsuya Bessho, the representative of the festival, concluded the ceremony by  saying, “The festival will start today at both real and online venues, and we hope you will enjoy the cinema travel and find a short film that reflects your heart or an encounter that shows what life is like. The ceremony ended with the enthusiastic words, “I hope you will enjoy the Cinema Travel and find a short film that reflects your heart and life.

An archive of the ceremony can be viewed on YouTube.

Please take a look.