Project 1

Short Film "The Old Woman Skin"

Project 2

Discover Beauty

Project 3

Creation of stories all around Japan

Project 4

Calling out for short story submissions from throughout Japan.

Project 5

Experiencing the beauty of Japanese countryside

About the Special Events sponsored and co-sponsored by Japan Cultural Expo and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia

Academy Awards® accredited, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, now in its 23rd year, announcing a project sponsored and co-sponsored by the 2021 Japan Cultural Expo to explore "The Beauty of Japan" together with filmmakers, directors, and artists from Japan and overseas.

  • Project 1

    Short Film "The Old Woman Skin"

    In 2020, the Japan Cultural Expo project drew on the essence of culture and stories laying dormant in various areas of Japan and made them into three short stories.
    Among them, a short story "Old Woman Skin" (written by Ao Omae), based on a folktale from Fukushima Prefecture that was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake 10 ago. The story was made into a short film by director Hiroki Inoue. The short film will be released online in late June.

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  • Project 2

    Discover Beauty

    With “Discover Beauty,” which highlights Japanese beauty as a theme, there will be an online "Discover Beauty Symposium" with focus on women's empowerment as a social issue, and a screening of the "Discover Beauty Program," a collection of short films depicting "Japanese beauty" from the perspective of a female director.

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  • Project 3

    Creation of stories all around Japan

    This is a project for young writers to write short stories based on ancient Japanese stories and folktales. For the current project, we will focus on Okinawa, Kumamoto, and Hiroshima Prefectures. The SSFF & ASIA 2021 Autumn Film Festival, scheduled to be held in October 2021, will host panel discussions with writers who have written for this project. We will also be going into production of short films based on these stories.

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  • Project 4

    Calling out for short story submissions from throughout Japan.

    The festival project, “Book Shorts” calls out for submissions of short stories from all over Japan. This year’s theme is to take another look at Japan’s old stories, fairy tales, folktales, & novels. Through this competition, we aim to rediscover the virtues and wisdom that have been passed down from ancient times and also the essence of Japanese beauty, in the stories from the past. The call for submissions will be open from August to December and the selection will be announced in March, 2022. The works will be translated into English and screened online worldwide.

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  • Project 5

    Experiencing the beauty of Japanese countryside

    "SSFF & ASIA 2021 in ACHI" will be held in Achi Village, Nagano Prefecture, which has been certified by the Ministry of the Environment as the "Japan's Best Starry Sky." In addition to screening SSFF & ASIA's "Discover Beauty Program" of short films with theme of Japanese beauty made from the perspective of female directors, we will also produce a PR video inspired by the surroundings made together by Japanese and foreign creators.

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The link to the 2020 Japan Cultural Expo Project, presented and co-presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Government of Japan, and the Japan Arts Council, here.