About

This Japan born, Academy Awards® accredited festival is one of the largest film festivals in Asia. The festival was started by actor Tetsuya Bessho, a native of Japan and SAG member, as he wanted to introduce Japanese audiences to short films, which were a format that many people in Japan were unfamiliar with. The first festival was held in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo in 1999, and 6 short films made by George Lucas, known best for the "Star Wars" franchise, when he was a student were screened. Since then we have received an annual letter of support from the director.
In 2001 the festival became known officially as Short Shorts Film Festival (SSFF), and in 2004 was accredited as a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards ®. This means that the winner of the festival Grand Prix is eligible to be nominated in one of the short film categories of the Academy Awards ® the following year, offering a bridge between Japan and the Oscars so that young talents may realize their dreams.
Furthermore, Short Shorts Film Festival Asia (SSFF ASIA) was established with support from Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2004, to introduce new Asian video culture and nurture young filmmaking talents from the region. To this day, the two festivals are held together as Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia. Aside from the 3 Official Competitions, there are categories and programs compiled around "music," "environment" and "CG animation" related shorts.
The short film specialist theater Brillia Short Shorts Theater was established in the Minatomirai area of Yokohama in 2008. Also acting as one of the festival venues, the theater has welcomed over 300,000 audience members to date. Whilst the festival expands its activities in Japan in order to spread the word of short film, it will also continue to support young creators and provide a springboard into the world of film. KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL has been sponsoring this film festival in Osaka since 2013.

What's Short Film

Short Film can be defined as anything from a film as short as one second, to a longer more varied length work. For Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia's Official Competitions, the running time must be kept within 25 minutes, but for the official Academy Awards can be up to 40 minutes in length, whereas for Cannes Film Festival the film must be within 15 minutes.

For any first time viewers, we shall explain how short films are shown at the festival. One program is approximately 110 minutes in length. With each film varying in length, and the longest films we screen being a maximum to 25 minutes in length, multiple films constitute a single program. In other words, in one program you have the chance to see anywhere a many different films. If the films tend to have a longer running time you may only see 4 works, whilst the programs compiled of works with a shorter running time will include a larger number of films – so you can choose which program to watch depending on your taste! Please be sure to come and enjoy these films that are screened back-to-back.

SSFF & ASIA 2015 theme