Judges' Comment
After watching all of the short films, I came to realize the differences between Asia, Japan and International short films.
While Asian and Japanese short films tried to tell an entire story, International short films used visual elements such as props, soundtrack, camera angles, length of each scene and so forth to explain a story line. I would say that this is the difference between "art" and "culture." International short films are more of an art form while Asian and Japanese short films spring from their respective cultural aspects.
Art comes from the depth of one’s unconsciousness, while culture comes from one’s ambitions to make life better and enjoyable. It can be summed up as, Art=Artist and Culture=Craftsman. Art is all about human anxiety, pain and is sometimes destructive, while culture is produced within a lifestyle and depends on brilliant ideas. This is why Asian short films were more melodramatic.
Western countries focus on "art" while Asian countries focus on "culture." "Art" is an extension of "culture" in a distinct aesthetic sense. For instance, the aesthetic sense of Naomi Kawase’s film impressed the world audiences at Cannes. I must say that Asian short films retain cultural and artistic aspects which are expressed through the beauty and strength of the films. I felt the magnificence, power and freshness of Asian films.
For Asia International Competition, it was interesting to see various qualities in each film. I particularly enjoyed Iranian short films.
For Japanese Competition, animation piece stood out for its high quality. I must say that Japanese animation is the best in the world. In addition, I loved Iranian animations as well because they got distinct themes.
After all, I was impressed by the quality of short films in International Competition. Each film represented its country and delivered a strong message within such a short amount of time. I really enjoyed watching International short films. It seemed to me that American films were more of entertainment, Brazilian one held sort of MTV quality to it and French ones were all about "men and woman.". I watched Norwegian and German films for the first time and also found them very interesting.
I was impressed by the styles, techniques and genres of the short films. I found some films to be particularly strong as they succeeded in combining a unique story with a fascinating political, social or intercultural approach.
In my opinion, the most important aspect of filmmaking is “sincerity”-and how much of this sincerity is expressed through the film.At SSFF & ASIA 2007, there was an abundant array of nominated short films that were made thoroughly and surpassed this powerful message.What set these films apart from others was the way they broke borders between countries and created a power to stir people’s emotions universally. In addition, there were films that had a certain warmth that put an unconscious smile on people’s faces.
"Power and Energy"
To create a short film it requires the same amount of power and energy that is needed to create a feature film. Regardless of a film’s length, it takes an incredible amount of hard work to get your film exposed to as many people as possible.
That is how I came up with the title of my comment "Power and Energy." The most important aspect that I look for is an inner strength that comes from each short film.The stronger a filmmaker’s passion to his film, the stronger the message the film acquires.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching the short films. There were many films with strong power and energy that kept me satisfied and I felt as if I was traveling around the world just by watching the various kinds of short films from all over the world.
It has been such an honor to be a jury member at this year’s festival and to have been given a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of short films and encounter young talents. I would like to emphasize that many of theshort films I watched were breathtaking. It is safe to say that a future of film industries is bright and now I can work on my films without any anxiety towards the future.