It was quite difficult to be a jury for the first time. Each film is different and unique in its own way, so I decided to make my choices mainly based on their dramatic aspect.
In the process of evaluating films, I was absolutely fascinated by the fact that short films possessed clear and sharp messages within. For the International Competition, I could not take my eyes off of "The Cleaner". For the Asia International Competition, "Color of Paradise" touched me emotionally and for the Japan Competition, "A day in the life of Hutong Beijing" let a sensitive feeling sprung from my heart. "Down the Road" and "Lavatory-Lovestory" still stay in my memory. Asian films showed a human sensitivity that coincided with silent poses between motions and lines, and Japanese films entertained me in such a nostalgic humor.
Karim Ainouz
My criterion was based on the fact of what films stayed with me, what films I remember the most after having watched all the films from each category. This criteria is also based on the films that have touched me emotionally, that have made me think: this was a film worth making. This is a criterion that tries to value films that are not just an exercise in style, or storytelling, but pieces of work that inspire me and make want to keep making films.
It was great to come into contact with so many Japanese short films for someone coming from Brazil like myself. There is definitely a wonderful sensibility in a lot of the films regarding human emotions, but not big epic emotions, but intimate, delicate emotions. This is what called my attention the most in the movies.
Maki Horikita
I love watching movies and have either positive or negative impressions after watching them. As I was watching so many short films this time, I had various sentiments towards each film and it was quite difficult to select the bests among them.
It was hard for me to compare films with such variety of genres and themes, so I decided to select films in the order of how much I enjoyed watching.
For the International Competition, it took time to decide on the top three. Most films had a clear theme to understand, and their themes were quite new and fascinating to me. For the Asia International Competition, I got a strong emotion to a Korean animation piece, "Hug". Recently there have been lots of sad news related to family, and I think that the family should be like the one in "Hug", especially the father. A main concept of these films I saw mostly rely on psychological aspects but with different expressions. For the Japan Competition, most of the nominated films depicted a certain moment of a dairy life. Among them, "Gravity" was set in a near future with current social issues, which I found deep.
Even thought I had to be in a position of jury, I enjoyed watching each one of them very much because I do not usually have such an opportunity to watch short films from all over the world. It was a wonderful experience to know different cultures, histories, religious believes and breathtaking ideas through such art forms, and I realized how intense and deep messages within short films could be.
Takao Osawa
So many films impressed me but especially ones from Europe and Korea caught my eyes. They were perfected in such a high quality sense.
The important aspects of filmmaking are not only to make what you want to make, but also how you express what you want to express. I would say that lot of films I have seen this time could have been lot better if filmmakers had had a little more sensitivity to care more about how the audience would feel or think by watching their films. I think that it is a sort of filmmakers' responsibility to evaluate their own films in such a sense.
Yoko Narahashi
First of all, I would like to thank the festival for giving me an opportunity to watch all these wonderful short films.
All of them had their own concepts, messages and ideas, but to me "L.H.O." seemed to be outstanding among those. That piece picked up on every tiny detail and had a surprising twist at the end. Moreover, "Lavatory Lovestory" was a short of shorts in terms of its technique and "Toyland" was a short film which gave me a sense of watching one epic feature film. This piece possessed such a wonderful theme and dramatic aspects to it. In terms of Japanese films, there were some interesting pieces indeed but my impression was that Japanese films would need to improve on their quality little more.
Short films are rather complex media which filmmakers can not cut corners in any ways. For that manner, greediness and overly calculated results can be transparent throughout their films. Like a bad acting, the audience will refuse to watch such films. For me, acting is such a crucial aspect when it comes to films and overall quality of the films as well. Like acting, the films need to properly deliver filmmakers' messages produced with tremendous effort of filmmakers. Such films are the best of all!
The Jurors are listed in alphabetic order.
STOP! Global Warming Competition
Anna Tsuchiya
There were many interesting short films in the Global Warming Competition and short films are such an aspiring media. It was such a wonderful and meaningful time to think of the serious issues of global warming through these short films. It is really important to relax and observe what short films tell us regarding the issues, rather than to be all serious about discussing the issues. By setting yourself and your thoughts free, true logic would follow.
Hidetoshi Nakata
During the jury process, I realized how difficult it is to evaluate a film based on certain criteria.
Through watching the many films, I also came to realize how much our lifestyles reflect the opposite of the very environmental issues that we are trying to solve.
We look for convenience in our lifestyles and therefore, we are indeed adding to the pollution and the current problems at hand. Taking that into consideration, it is visibly noticeable how we are doing the opposite of what we are looking to solve. It has made me think that it is necessary to go directly up against each issue, front and foremost.
I believe that we chose a film that reflects this reality.
I hope that everyone will watch the film that we chose and that is a catalyst for everyone to think and take action.
Mamoru Oshii
From the film festival point of view, I believe that if the film doesn't exceed the quality of the standard, it should not be considered an award nominee. Since a short film is not a TV commercial, but a cinema, it should possess a value as a cinema. Having said this, I focused on films that reflect the filmmakers. Having seen the films, I felt that many films addressed issues of global warming too much. To express commonly justified information through a filter called 'directing' is merely a 'personal intimidation' to others. It is propaganda and nothing but a personal expression. In order to communicate your message to the audience, you need to do it more from the emotional level. This is how I came to a conclusion for the winner.
The Jurors are listed in alphabetic order.
Online Competition
Hiroyuki Nakao
As I was watching all the nominated films, I came to realize that, in their own respect, they had casual and interesting concepts, high quality CGs and perfect endings that could only be expressed in short films. As I myself am a filmmaker, their films inspired me in such a great way.
Maki Horikita
Overall, many of the films were enjoyable if I were an audience. I came to realize the importance of a filmmaker delivering a message to the audience, and his/her audience receives it correctly. This importance can apply to acting as well.
Sean Chu
For us, it was the first time to establish the Online Competition collaborating with SSFF & ASIA. Despite the fact that there were only 50 days of the submission period, we received more than 200 submissions through Soapbox. After the first selecting process, users of the Soapbox voted for top 5, and then 3 jury members including myself chose one best short based on the criteria such as impression, uniqueness, storytelling method, visual quality, and aptitude for the internet streaming. In addition, each of us added our own criteria. I focused on the point of whether or not I would want to take the film out in my portable player.
The best short that we selected for the award was of which was suitable for the web streaming, and had a great sense of storytelling. In another word, its overall quality was quite high and entertaining.
Official Competition
It was quite difficult to be a jury for the first time. Each film is different and unique in its own way, so I decided to make my choices mainly based on their dramatic aspect.
In the process of evaluating films, I was absolutely fascinated by the fact that short films possessed clear and sharp messages within. For the International Competition, I could not take my eyes off of "The Cleaner". For the Asia International Competition, "Color of Paradise" touched me emotionally and for the Japan Competition, "A day in the life of Hutong Beijing" let a sensitive feeling sprung from my heart. "Down the Road" and "Lavatory-Lovestory" still stay in my memory. Asian films showed a human sensitivity that coincided with silent poses between motions and lines, and Japanese films entertained me in such a nostalgic humor.
My criterion was based on the fact of what films stayed with me, what films I remember the most after having watched all the films from each category. This criteria is also based on the films that have touched me emotionally, that have made me think: this was a film worth making. This is a criterion that tries to value films that are not just an exercise in style, or storytelling, but pieces of work that inspire me and make want to keep making films.
It was great to come into contact with so many Japanese short films for someone coming from Brazil like myself. There is definitely a wonderful sensibility in a lot of the films regarding human emotions, but not big epic emotions, but intimate, delicate emotions. This is what called my attention the most in the movies.
I love watching movies and have either positive or negative impressions after watching them. As I was watching so many short films this time, I had various sentiments towards each film and it was quite difficult to select the bests among them.
It was hard for me to compare films with such variety of genres and themes, so I decided to select films in the order of how much I enjoyed watching.
For the International Competition, it took time to decide on the top three. Most films had a clear theme to understand, and their themes were quite new and fascinating to me. For the Asia International Competition, I got a strong emotion to a Korean animation piece, "Hug". Recently there have been lots of sad news related to family, and I think that the family should be like the one in "Hug", especially the father. A main concept of these films I saw mostly rely on psychological aspects but with different expressions. For the Japan Competition, most of the nominated films depicted a certain moment of a dairy life. Among them, "Gravity" was set in a near future with current social issues, which I found deep.
Even thought I had to be in a position of jury, I enjoyed watching each one of them very much because I do not usually have such an opportunity to watch short films from all over the world. It was a wonderful experience to know different cultures, histories, religious believes and breathtaking ideas through such art forms, and I realized how intense and deep messages within short films could be.
So many films impressed me but especially ones from Europe and Korea caught my eyes. They were perfected in such a high quality sense.
The important aspects of filmmaking are not only to make what you want to make, but also how you express what you want to express. I would say that lot of films I have seen this time could have been lot better if filmmakers had had a little more sensitivity to care more about how the audience would feel or think by watching their films. I think that it is a sort of filmmakers' responsibility to evaluate their own films in such a sense.
First of all, I would like to thank the festival for giving me an opportunity to watch all these wonderful short films.
All of them had their own concepts, messages and ideas, but to me "L.H.O." seemed to be outstanding among those. That piece picked up on every tiny detail and had a surprising twist at the end. Moreover, "Lavatory Lovestory" was a short of shorts in terms of its technique and "Toyland" was a short film which gave me a sense of watching one epic feature film. This piece possessed such a wonderful theme and dramatic aspects to it. In terms of Japanese films, there were some interesting pieces indeed but my impression was that Japanese films would need to improve on their quality little more.
Short films are rather complex media which filmmakers can not cut corners in any ways. For that manner, greediness and overly calculated results can be transparent throughout their films. Like a bad acting, the audience will refuse to watch such films. For me, acting is such a crucial aspect when it comes to films and overall quality of the films as well. Like acting, the films need to properly deliver filmmakers' messages produced with tremendous effort of filmmakers. Such films are the best of all!
STOP! Global Warming Competition
There were many interesting short films in the Global Warming Competition and short films are such an aspiring media. It was such a wonderful and meaningful time to think of the serious issues of global warming through these short films. It is really important to relax and observe what short films tell us regarding the issues, rather than to be all serious about discussing the issues. By setting yourself and your thoughts free, true logic would follow.
During the jury process, I realized how difficult it is to evaluate a film based on certain criteria.
Through watching the many films, I also came to realize how much our lifestyles reflect the opposite of the very environmental issues that we are trying to solve. We look for convenience in our lifestyles and therefore, we are indeed adding to the pollution and the current problems at hand. Taking that into consideration, it is visibly noticeable how we are doing the opposite of what we are looking to solve. It has made me think that it is necessary to go directly up against each issue, front and foremost.
I believe that we chose a film that reflects this reality.
I hope that everyone will watch the film that we chose and that is a catalyst for everyone to think and take action.
From the film festival point of view, I believe that if the film doesn't exceed the quality of the standard, it should not be considered an award nominee. Since a short film is not a TV commercial, but a cinema, it should possess a value as a cinema. Having said this, I focused on films that reflect the filmmakers. Having seen the films, I felt that many films addressed issues of global warming too much. To express commonly justified information through a filter called 'directing' is merely a 'personal intimidation' to others. It is propaganda and nothing but a personal expression. In order to communicate your message to the audience, you need to do it more from the emotional level. This is how I came to a conclusion for the winner.
Online Competition
As I was watching all the nominated films, I came to realize that, in their own respect, they had casual and interesting concepts, high quality CGs and perfect endings that could only be expressed in short films. As I myself am a filmmaker, their films inspired me in such a great way.
Overall, many of the films were enjoyable if I were an audience. I came to realize the importance of a filmmaker delivering a message to the audience, and his/her audience receives it correctly. This importance can apply to acting as well.
For us, it was the first time to establish the Online Competition collaborating with SSFF & ASIA. Despite the fact that there were only 50 days of the submission period, we received more than 200 submissions through Soapbox. After the first selecting process, users of the Soapbox voted for top 5, and then 3 jury members including myself chose one best short based on the criteria such as impression, uniqueness, storytelling method, visual quality, and aptitude for the internet streaming. In addition, each of us added our own criteria. I focused on the point of whether or not I would want to take the film out in my portable player.
The best short that we selected for the award was of which was suitable for the web streaming, and had a great sense of storytelling. In another word, its overall quality was quite high and entertaining.