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9 cities, 13 venues

The festival toured 9 cities: Yangon, Myanmar and across Japan; Tokyo, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Osaka, Hakodate, Nagoya and Matsumoto.

Over 2,000 films from 50 countries

From the enormous number of submitted works, the committee selected 40 shorts from 20 countries.

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Competition Programs

International Competition

The festival received 40 films from 20 countries in competition. The shortest film is 1 minute and 9 seconds, and the longest film is 25 minutes. Though they varied in length, every film was equally entertaining.
This year, we found some great short films that incorporate dance in a unique way. Dancing, like short films, is an art form of limitless variety and expression. We screened 5 dance shorts featuring dancing sewer creatures, dancing Nazis, dancing surgeons and a dancing terrorist.

National Competition

Short films are a thriving genre in Japan, with new talent continuously injected into an ever-growing filmmaking community. The festival continued to present the "Super Dry Award" (established by SSFF and "Asahi Super Dry") to support the talent and the passion of young Japanese filmmakers. We screened a new film by Hiroyuki Nakano (last year's "Super Dry Award" winner) titled "THE SECRET SHOW," funded with the Super Dry Award scholarship of 2004.

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Special Programs

B&C - Gael García Bernal & Alfonso and Carlos Cuarón

Continuing our 7-year tradition of highlighting the early short films of renowned feature filmmakers, we were thrilled to present short films written and directed by Alfonso and Carlos Cuarón and short films starring Gael García Bernal. Alfonso and Carlos have collaborated on shorts and features, including the Academy Award®-nominated “Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN”, and Alfonso directed “HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN”. Gael García Bernal, who attracted international attention for his turns in “AMORES PERROS” and “Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN”, began his career in TV and short film. His star power shines through in these impressive early works.

FFFY2005

We presented 9 films from the Festival du Film Francais Yokohama 2005, which is held in June in Yokohama every year. These French short films, including official selections of the FESTIVAL DU CANNES, transported audiences away to France!

VIRGIN TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS All-Night Screening

THE All-Night Screening at VIRGIN TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS from June 30 to July 2 was held again. Though the screenings were held through midnight, there was good attendance and everyone had a good time.

Award Ceremony

1,700 guests attended the Award Ceremony on July 3. Jury members announced the award-winning films, which were screened at the ceremony, and presented the awards to the filmmakers.

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Jury

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Awards

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Growing Expectation: Short Shorts Film Festival Asia 2005

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Competition Programs

Asia International CompetitionThe festival continued to play melodies of Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent by presenting different genres of short films. We screened these films, which had never been screened before in Japan.

National Competition

Short films are a thriving genre in Japan, with new talent continuously injected into an ever-growing filmmaking community. The festival continued to present the "Super Dry Award" (established by SSFF and "Asahi Super Dry") to support the talent and passion of young Japanese filmmakers. We screened a new film by Hiroyuki Nakao (last year's "Super Dry Award" winner) titled "THE SECRET SHOW," funded with the Super Dry Award scholarship of 2004.

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Special Programs

Special Screenings & Event

We screened the Japan premiere of "THE OPEN ROAD," directed by Hong Kong director Johnnie To. We also presented a special screening of shorts by a new generation of Vietnamese filmmakers, as the country marked the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. As a commemoration of the "Japan-Korea Friendship Year 2005," we presented the hottest Korean music clips, emceed by the Korea-Japan Music coordinator, Masanori Furuya. All clips had been shot in Japan since January 2005.

Academy Program

In this special program, we presented two of this year's Academy Award® winning shorts; “RYAN” (Animation, Canada) and “WASP” (Fiction, UK). We also screened Koji Yamamura's “ATAMAYAMA”, which had been nominated for an Academy Award® in the short animation category in 2003. Yamamura joined the event to discuss his thoughts about the Oscars® and what it took to be nominated for such an honor.

VIRGIN TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS All-Night Screening

The All-Night Screening at VIRGIN TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS from June 30 to July 2 was held once again. Though the screenings were held through midnight, attendance was good and everyone had a good time.

Award Ceremony

1,700 guests attended the Award Ceremony on July 3. Jury members announced the award-winning films, which were screened at the ceremony, and presented the awards to the filmmakers.

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Jury

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Awards

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2,773 films, 89 countries

43 selected films from new submissions and 37 films, previously screened at the annual SSFF, were screened at SSFF EXPO 2005. In addition, 5 special films, from Japan and abroad, were screened as well.

Program Highlights

Different films screened each day.

• 1st round screening: April 26 - July 3
  We screened a total of 37 films, which had previously screened at SSFF editions over the past six years.
• 2nd round screening: July 4 - August 8
  We screened 21 films from new submissions. The program included two special films directed by George Lucas.
• 3rd round screening: August 9 - September 8
  22 films screened, including three special films, two were directed by George Lucas and one by Leonardo DiCaprio.
• 4th round screening: September 10 - September 24
  This program started right after the Main Festival and featured the three award winning films. In addition, two special films were also screened, one directed by Hiroyuki Nakano and another produced by a Japanese pop singer, CHAGE.

 

Special Screening Films

   George Lucas, FilmmakerAnyone Lived in a Pretty (How) Town
   George Lucas, FilmmakerLook at Life *Both featured in the 2nd and 3rd round screenings.
   Leonardo DiCaprio, Actor Water Planet *Featured in the 3rd round screening.
   Hiroyuki Nakano, Film DirectorRE:CYCLE
   CHAGE, Musicianmissing pages

Special Events

On September 8, 9 and 10, Special Events were held at the EXPO Plaza before the Main Festival. For the first two days, the SSFF EXPO 2005 producer Tetsuya Bessho hosted guests to the stage to talk about films. The guests included RAG FAIR, the acappella group (Sep 8) and Director Kazuyuki Izutsu (Sep 9).
On the last day (Sep 10), we screened short films and hosted a special live concert, by CHAGE.

Main Festival

On September 10, the Main Festival and awards ceremony took place at the EXPO dome. Over 3,000 people participated in our event. During the first stage of the event, we gave the Grand Prix and two Best Short Awards to three outstanding short films. We screened "missing pages" produced by CHAGE as our special invitation film during the second stage. After this screening, CHAGE, who was one of our special guests and a popular Japanese musician, performed a live concert.

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Jury

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Awards