Showcase of the best SHORT FILMS in the world today.
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Best Film: ON / OFF
Best Animation Film: UNWOUND
Best Cinematography: THE PARADOX
Best Performances: VINYL BEGINNING
Best Direction: FLY
Best Sound & Music: CORNERS
Theme of night: Life
Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Videos:
Showcase of the best SHORT FILMS in the world today.
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Best Film: TRACE OF A BUTTERFLY
Best Animation: PARALLELISM
Best Direction: GRUF AND ME
Best Sound & Music: THANKS AGAIN!
Theme of night: Life
Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Videos:
 DOWN WITH GOLIATH, 3min., Animation
|
 THANKS AGAIN!, 5min., Japan, Animation
|
 MEMOIRS OF A MOZLEM, 5min., USA, Animation
|
 SYMBIONIC, 6min., USA, Animation
|
 TRACE OF A BUTTERFLY, 11min., China, Animation
|
 GRUF AND ME, 9min., Israal, Live Action/Animation
|
 POLAR BEAR BEARS BOREDOM, 7min., Japan, Animation
|
 PARALLELISM, 15min., Italy, Experimental Animation
|
Born in 1964, Koji started working on animated films as an amateur, at the age of 13. During the 1990s, he explored various styles and techniques while working mainly on films for children. Nominated at the Oscars for Best Animated Short, “Mt. Head” marked a turning point, leading him to join the world’s most renowned animation filmmakers. His major works since include “The Old Crocodile” (2005), “Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor” (2007) and “Muybridge’s Strings” (2011). His films were awarded with more than 100 prizes, including Grand Prizes at the four most important international animation film festivals: Annecy, Zagreb, Ottawa and Hiroshima. He has been part of many international juries, and has held numerous retrospective screenings around the world. He has been selected as the 2 place at 25 top short animated films directors over the last 25 years in 2021 at Animac, the International Animation Showcase of Catalonia. He was rewarded with the National Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2019.
Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts.
Director Statement
This project is inspired with the Japanese picture scroll in the 12 to 13 century: Bird and Beast Character Caricature. Marine animals spread out in world ocean. Using the short rhythm of the poem, you will enjoy the various sea animals’ thoughts and life. This rhyme verse in both English and Japanese at same means and this film is continued in one scene and one cut for 7 minutes.
A polar bear who is very bored with various marine animals in the deep blue sea.
It continues an ancient tradition of “Caricatures of Frolicking animals” in scroll painting-style; this time, “Frolicking Sea Animals,” in animation form, with a play on Japanese and English language word-plays: “Hokyoku-Guma Suggoku Hima. / Polar bear bears boredom”, “Kawauso Kawaisou. / Other otter, poor otter,” etc.
Project Links
Life is always as light as a butterfly dance, meeting, separating, birth and death, seem to be just the gentle flapping in the wing.
But even if the life is light like this , is it really impossible to leave any traces?
Born in China in 1995. Received bachelor’s degree from Jiangnan University，School of Digital Media，Department of animation in 2018. From April 2020, Studying animation in the master course of Kyoto University of the Arts, Department of Graphic Design.
Director Statement
In the Showa era, it was common to see vending machine corners offering udon, soba, burgers, etc. in the city. Even late at night, you could eat hot food. At a time when Japan’s economy was growing at a rapid pace, convenience and abundance were sought after, the design of the vending machines was full of warmth and sophistication, they formed a peaceful daily life for people.
After the 1990s, with the spread of 24-hour convenience stores, the corner of vending machines, which had lost its customer base, began to diminish. With that, the manufacturing of food vending machines came to an end. Since the 21st century, society has developed at a high speed, it is a miracle that there are still a few vending machine corners in existence today. I went to the corner that was still open on the outskirts of the city I was in, and there was no longer the lively scene of the past, only the lonely figure of the shopkeeper maintaining the vending machine.
“It would be nice if that kind of everyday scenery could last forever.” By gazing into the quietness of the vending machine corner, I wanted to create a separate space that seemed to be placed in the world we were living in. The nostalgic and peaceful time is condensed in this endless image.
Each character symbolises a tone and appears in front of the vending machines common in the Showa era, forming a melody from memory. As the music ends and people leave, the lone owner says “thanks again” once more.
In this animated short film against the backdrop of a 1990’s Chicago Southside, an adolescent (nameless) black girl is educated by her southern grandmother on the sacrifices that it takes to survive as a woman in their violent, crack infused environment. With her grandmother’s mobster-esque support and a sawed-off rifle in a Malboro duffle bag, she emerges victorious from the fight of her life, only to realize that the world was no longer a suitable opponent for a gladiator like her. Everything had become “Down With Goliath.”
Born in 1968 in Jerusalem.
Graduated from the Bezalel academy in 1995 with a B des. degree in Visual Communications.
Graduated from the Digital Media Program, The School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University in 2021 with a MFA. degree in VFX.
Lives in Tel Aviv with my wife and two children.
Gruf is a graffiti character that comes to life in animation. Gruf falls in love with the street artist who created him. He desperately tries to find her in the shabby streets of Tel Aviv and discovers that inter-dimensional love is not easy.
