Prize Winner Announcement

Tokyo SSFF is one of the most (short film) director friendly film festival I have ever attended. The selection of films were great, the organization was impeccable too but what touched me most as a film maker was the care and affection of the festival organisers towards film makers.The festival really cares for and understands the dilemmas of independent film makers and encourages them to continue film making with the support offered. It just has the perfect spirit! I think along with films, it is people that make or break a festival. In my trip to SSFF I met some of the most beautiful people though for a short while, but enough to derive strength and inspiration to continue my work.

I had a wonderful time at Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed the festival and its events. Winning the Best International Short Award for my short film "Bawke" is a great honor and I am very appreciative to receive the award.

Short films are a powerful medium that can express great human emotion and story telling. Festivals like SSFF provide a valuable opportunity to share films, culture and experiences to audiences around the world. Furthermore, I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to share Norwegian films with Japanese audiences.

Thank you very much and I wish everyone great success in the future.

My short film “An Electric Fan of Grandma” depicts one ordinary Japanese family, nothing exciting nor dramatic, but I hope that such a simple story can give you an indescribable but familiar feeling.

It is my great honor to receive the Best Short Award in Japan Competition and winning the award gave me a confidence about my work, which will keep me going with my filmmaking career.

I would like to say thank you to my wonderful crew, casts, all of the staff members of SSFF & ASIA and Juries who chose my film for this wonderful prize.

Hello, Greg Williams here, the director and co-writer of Last Stop.

We love our film, and we love it when other people respond well to it. We wanted our short film to be an entertaining piece that carried a serious message about post-911 media hype and the blurring of the lines between terrorism and racism that can travel across cultures. We are especially thrilled to receive the FC Tokyo Student Jury Award from SSFF 2007 and we thank the excellent jury and their excellent decision. Arrigato you from all of us down here in Australia!

"Who Killed the Stanley Black?" consists of two aspects: live action for human characters and CG for backgrounds. As we see in some recent films such as "SINCITY" and "300," this kind of technique is often used. The hardest part was to come up with a good storyline. I wanted to emphasize the reason for using this technique for this piece otherwise my film would have been merely a show-off of the technique. This was difficult to do. Then I came up with the story where a guy gets killed many times. I hope that I have created a creepy and unearthly tone within the film by mixing an absurd setting with CG.

I see so many remakes and novel-based films nowadays which result in less originality than any other mediums such as plays, novels and TV dramas. I am hoping to create a purely original story for my next film.

I'm greatly honoured to receive the award for my short film "Lonely Together" earlier this year. The award shows that storytelling is universal. I am very grateful and would like to thank both the festival and the audience for the prize.

I am highly honored by winning the Audience Award at SSFF & ASIA 2007. The staff and actors in my film (Mandarin Ghost) were especially delighted about awarding the prize.

The main hero of the film who is also my son received his elementary school friend’s congratulation on the win. The trip to the festival was his first trip overseas and he was so excited to visit Tokyo. Thanks to SSFF 2007. It will always be a happy and proud memory for him.

I am really appreciative of the large audience support for my short film and I hope to attend SSFF & ASIA again in the future with my new film.

I sincerely hope to go onto international fame along with SSFF & ASIA.

Thank you

I am very honored to receive the Audience Award that reflects a reaction and appreciation from the audiences. I am also pleased to see that my intention of making this film, which was to remind the public of a war history and peace that we must keep had an impact on a wide range of audiences.

Lastly, I would like to give my great appreciation to my wonderful production crew, casts and those who have given warm support for my film.