We are pleased to announce the winner of the 8th Book Short Award!!
Short Shorts Film Festival & ASIA
“Stories from around Japan”
We are pleased to announce the winner of the 8th Book Short Award
Moe Haruno, who wrote a short story
based on the nursery rhyme “Akatonbo”
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA), one of Asia’s largest international short film festival accredited by the Academy Awards, announced the 8th Book Short Award Grand Prize winners selected for the short stories project. View all of the grand prize-winning novels have been posted on the Book Shorts website.
Website URL: https://bookshorts.jp/20210801a
This award was held as part of the 2021 Japan Expo sponsored “Stories from Around Japan” project. While maintaining the themes of the previous Book Short Award, we especially collected 1,067 submissions for “stories from various regions of Japan”.
The Grand Prize winner, “Aitai hito” by Moe Haruno, is a short story based on the children’s song “Akatonbo” (Red Dragonfly). Based on a melody and lyrics that many people in Japan have heard before, the story depicts the relationship between the main character, and a neighborhood sister, a woman he met once, and their grandmother.
inspired by a phrase in the song, this story talks about the person that we wish to see again or regret not seeing them enough.Those people are often a bitter memory that causes pain but we are often encouraged by their presence. “Aitai Hito” carefully depicts the sense of loss that the protagonist feels, while at the same time showing how his encounter with a certain woman leads to a positive change in his life.
Short story “Aitai Hito” by Moe Haruno (source: the children’s song “Akatonbo”)
◆Synopsis
When Akane encounters Muramatsu-san sleeping on the train, she notices that her face looks exactly like someone she knows. She hopes for an emotional reunion, but as she follows her, she sees an unexpected scene.
◆Artist Profile
Moe Haruno: Born in Yamagata. After graduating from Tsuru Bunka University, she transferred to an art college after working. Her inspiration for her creative work came from playing with her father’s word processor when she was a child. Her current dream is to create original picture books and read them to elementary school children.
FY 2021 Japan Cultural Expo Project Presented and Co-presented by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and Japan Arts Council : https://www.shortshorts.org/japanculturalexpo/en/