Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia OSAKA 2016 Program Day3
The excitement of Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia Osaka 2016 welcomes its third day, at the Knowledge Capital Theater of Grand Front Osaka. Every day, more than 1,200 audiences have come to the theater, and they all seem to have been enchanted with short films.
Today started with “Future Film Day in Taiwan” Program. Starting in Taiwan in 2011 as the One Day On Earth Project, Future Film Day was planned as a part of that project in 2012. This year marks the 5th anniversary. Unlike ordinary film festivals in Taiwan, Future Film Day is
held in active partnership with major overseas arts and literature organizations.
Last year, we had the same program featuring the founder of the festival, Wei-lun Lin. The program will feature again more refreshing and variety of type of shorts from Taiwan by spirited young Taiwanese directors
After the screening, we had two guests from the program. First guest was the director of the film “Ms. Vanilla,” Ms. Hsu Tzu-Yueh. When she was asked by the MC how she feels to be in Japan, she said, “Saiko! (the best!)” in Japanese. She said that she made this film as her graduate film
of the school, and she chose to make a black comedy short because most of her classmates were making more serious films with themes of family and society. The second guest was Ms. Cindy Lin, who was the main actress of the film “Rest in Peace.” She still is a college student from Tainan. She works as a model and actress, and she hopes to work continuously in the entertainment industry.
The 2nd program was “Cannes Program,” filled with high quality short films from the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes Film Festival draws much attention both domestically and abroad. Even within the film industry, the market established alongside the festival is considered a key place for the creation of new business opportunities. We screened a lineup of gems from this festival.
The program includes this year’s Palm D’or film “Timecode.” Osaka audience reacted to the film with much laughter.
After the event, the festival hosted a special guest, Mr. Naohiro Ukawa, who is the representative of Cur’rent Artist/ Dommune. He introduced three vintage propaganda animated shorts which were made during before and during the World War II.
The third program of the day was “Maestro ＆ Celebrity Shorts Program.” This is a special collection of short films from directors at the forefront of the industry and films featuring distinguished actors, such as the Academy Award winning Brie Larson and Robert De Niro.
After the screening, Mr. Ukawa came up on the stage once again along with Ms. Yukari Onishi, a FM Osaka radio DJ.
This time, Mr. Ukawa presented a propaganda animated short made in North Korea. They also talked about how Japanese people are used to “shorten” everything in their arts, as in “Haiku.” Their discussion also evolved into the origin of “music shorts” which was first recognized in the 80’s with Michael Jackson’s “Thiller.” Mr. Ukawa said, “When that music video came out, there was no rule for music video. Any kind of expressions were possible because nobody had made them. “Thriller” was indeed a first Music short.”
And finally, the last program of the day was “Focus on Japan” program, featuring three shorts produced by SSFF & ASIA, and “The Gift of Memory,” directed by prominent Japanese director, Isao Yukisada. The film was the winner of the 5th Visual Tourism Award(Commissioner’s Award, the Japan Tourism Agency).
The Osaka festival rests for a few days during this week, and we will be back this weekend on the 24th and the 25th for more short films, so stay tuned!!