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Los Angeles – December 18, 2023 – Japan House Los Angeles and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (Ssff & Asia), the largest short film festivals in Asia and Academy Award® qualifying festivals, have joined together for the second time to showcase Short Shorts Film Festival in Hollywood on January 11, 2024. The one-day film festival celebrating film and culture will screen several diverse short films created by Japanese and international filmmakers, from up-and-comers to an Academy Award-winning filmmaker.

Marking the 5th anniversary of Japan House Los Angeles, and the 25th anniversary of the Ssff & Asia, this year's theme “Unlock Cinema | Short Films, Infinite Possibilities,” celebrates the filmmakers' journey, recognizing how most filmmakers' careers begin by creating short films, unlocking their potential to create feature-length films. The festival will also include a talk event by Ssff & Asia founder and President Tetsuya Bessho, Takuma Takasaki, co-writer and producer of “Perfect Days”, and moderated by USC's Senior Director of Festival,...

Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life With Ghost,” Ana Asensio’s “The Goat Girl,” Gala Gracia’s “The Remnants of You” and Esteban Alenda Bros.’ “There Is Evil” are some of the film projects pitched at the spotlight event on Spanish cinema at Cannes’ Producers Network on Friday May 20.

Five Spanish production companies– Un Capricho de Producciones, Quatre Films Audiovisuales, Potenza Producciones, Aquí y Allí Films and Solita Films – were selected by Spain’s trade promotion board Icex and the Icaa film institute to pitch their production slates at the Marché du Film event.

As part of the Production Day, which kicked off with the Producers Network, the five Spanish producers made a video pitch with their projects – the main part of them at development stage – to encourage international partnerships with co-producers and sales agents.

Comedy is the predominant genre among the feature projects selected.

In the evening, 25 Spanish producers will...

"We started when I was little... I'd roll up socks. Then, he'd put me in the suitcase." We always enjoy stop-motion films. Negative Space is stop-motion animated short that was one of the five nominees for Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2018. The film depicts a father--son relationship through the art of packing a suitcase, showing techniques to pack it perfectly that the son learned from his father growing up. It's co-directed by animation filmmakers Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, made in France. Featuring the voice of Albert Birney as Sam. This has lovely music, and best of all some gorgeous production design, color, and lighting design. It's a simple, sweet story to tell, and they make it all the more moving with its distinct style. Thanks to Short of the Week for debuting this one. Original description from YouTube: "Even though Sam's father is hardly ever home because...

Welcome to the IndieWire Watch List, a weekly feature that takes everything the site’s critics and editors are currently obsessed with and collects it all together in one place. From the best new movies and shows to can’t-miss streaming content and whatever else we can’t get out of our heads, consider this your one-stop shop for what to watch this weekend.

This week’s highlights are facing a litter box full of stiff competition from that life-altering “Cats” trailer, but are more than worthy of your time if you’re able to pull yourself away from digital fur-enhanced Judi Dench for a few minutes (easier said than done). Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” a sensation at Sundance earlier this year and now a bonafide box office smash, is expanding to cities across the country, and is an unmissable film. On the TV side of things, Hulu has...

Swedish documentary filmmaker Anastasia Kirillova and “Negative Space” co-directors Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter are among the filmmakers who will receive grants from Rooftop Films to help complete their upcoming projects.

Kirilova will be awarded $20,000 to finish her film, “In the Shadows of Love,” while collaborators Kuwahata and Porter will receive $10,000 for “Dandelion Seed.”

Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization founded to showcase and fund the work of rising filmmakers and musicians in New York City. They provide cash grants to artists, rent equipment at affordable costs and organize film screenings.

“One of the great pleasures of working at Rooftop Films is that we have the opportunity to not only witness the growth of tenacious artists, but to support their visionary works as well,” said Dan Nuxoll, Rooftop Films’ artistic director. “This year’s grantees are among the most promising in all our years of championing independent cinema, and we...

At the 2018 Oscars, Frances McDormand, who won her second Best Actress Academy Award for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” asked all the female nominees to stand. Ten women will always be nominated by the academy: five for Best Actress and another five for Best Supporting Actress. Besides these other nine women, how many others were on their feet in the Dolby Theater?

Of the 20 non-gender specific categories, women were contenders in 17 of them; they were shut out of Original Score (5 men), Sound Editing (9 men) and Visual Effects (20 men). As you can see below, 47 women other than actresses were nominated at the 90th Academy Awards. Of these, only four won Oscars. By comparison, 151 men other than actors were nominated and 32 took home Oscars.

Only one category — Costume Design — had more women contending then men but the winner was a man: Mark Bridges (“Phantom Thread”), who also picked up the jet ski for the shortest acceptance speech.

Ten women will always be nominated for Oscars: five for Best Actress and another five for Best Supporting Actress. At the 2018 Oscars, Frances McDormand, who won her second Best Actress Academy Award for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” asked all the female nominees to stand. As you can see from the video above, she asked rival acting nominee Meryl Streep (“The Post”) to lead the way and this 21-time Oscar nominee obliged. Besides the other eight actresses nominated, how many other women were on their feet in the Dolby theater?

Of the 20 non-gender specific categories, women were contenders in 17 of them; they were shut out of Original Score (5 men), Sound Editing (9 men) and Visual Effects (20 men). As you can see below, 47 women other than actresses were nominated at the 90th Academy Awards. Of these, only four won Oscars. By comparison, 151 men other than actors were nominated and 32 took home Oscars.

Update: Winners are now indicated. I correctly guessed 15 out of the 24 categories, which is one of my better showings ever, I think.

Earlier:

Just under the wire!

I’ve now seen as many of the nominated films as I will be able to before tonight’s ceremony, and here finally are my educated guesses about who will take home each award — projected winners are Xed at the lefthand side. Keep in mind: those Xes don’t represent whom I think should win Oscars but whom I think will win, based on what little I can grasp about how the Academy thinks. I’ve also noted which nominees I think should win. Kindly note that this is not necessarily my take on who did the best performance/writing/FX/whatever of the year, but whom I think is best among the nominees.

The only films I have not yet seen are:...

The 2018 Academy Awards took place on March 4 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The 90th annual ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. The full list of winners is below.

Supporting Actor:

Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”

Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”

Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”

Makeup and Hair:

“Darkest Hour,” Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick

“Victoria and Abdul,” Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard

“Wonder,” Arjen Tuiten

Costume Design:

“Phantom Thread,” Mark Bridges

“Beauty and the Beast,” Jacqueline Durran

“Darkest Hour,” Jacqueline Durran

“The Shape of Water,” Luis Sequeira

“Victoria and Abdul,” Consolata Boyle

Best Documentary Feature:

“Icarus,” Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman

“Faces Places,” Jr, Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda

“Last Men in Aleppo,” Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Soren Steen Jepersen

“Strong Island,...

Best Picture

The Shape of Water

Call Me By Your Name

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Get Out

Lady Bird

Phantom Thread

The Post

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actor

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Best Actress

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Supporting Actor

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,...

MaryAnn’s quick take… My pick: I suspect that this year’s winner will be “Garden Party” [pictured], a spectacular debut from new French animation studio Illogic that I am sure we will be seeing a lot more stunning work from. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Death, despair, and decay. Some very black humor. These motifs run through most of this year’s Oscar-nominated animated short films. Oh, and childhood. In one case, the despair of childhood. Fun times.

I suspect that this year’s winner will be “Garden Party” [IMDb|official site], from a new French animation studio called Illogic — consisting of filmmakers Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, and Lucas Navarro — that I am sure we will be seeing a lot more stunning work from. The adventures of frogs and toads and...

Even parents that have complicated relationships with their children can still find ways of bonding. The short film, “Negative Space,” explores this with the activity of packing a suitcase. It may seem like a simple concept, but the stop-motion short film is now one of the five nominees for Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Oscars. Filmmakers, Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, both scored their first career nominations.

A man is seen finishing packing a suitcase. The man then describes how his dad taught him how to pack a suitcase properly. As he sets off on his trip, we see how these interactions with his dad came about during his life. We first see him as a very young child who would help his father roll up socks to put in the suitcase and then his father would put him in it as well. Being in there, surrounded...

The animated shorts race is defined by memorable characters: A dance between young and adult Kobe Bryant in “Dear Basketball,” a father and son bonding over ritual packing in “Negative Space,” a collection of lost and found schoolyard objects thwarting a bully in Pixar’s “Lou,” a mysterious wolf recounting the unusual bonding between Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White in “Revolting Rhymes,” and a wacky amphibian takeover of a mansion in “Garden Party.”

Despite the backlash against Bryant for his sexual assault charge back in 2003 and the limited scope of his short, “Dear Basketball” remains the favorite to win the Oscar. That’s due to the irresistible pairing of the former Lakers legend with former Disney legend Glen Keane, who directed the short. However, “Negative Space” could pull an upset for its inventive animation and resonating theme.

Read more about these nominees, ranked in order of their likelihood...

Three of the most difficult categories to call every year at the Oscars are those of the short films. They lack precursor prizes and, in many cases, visibility. If you are not able to see these films before the Academy Awards on March 4, don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. Below is our take on the five nominees for Best Animated Short.

A screening committee drawn from the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members winnowed a field of 63 entries for Best Animated Short down to 10 semi-finalists using an averaged scoring system.. All members of the branch could cast preferential ballots for the five nominees and the entire academy can vote on the winner.

See 2018 Oscars: Best Live Action Short Film nominees by rising stars of world cinema

“Dear Basketball” (USA)

Director: Glen Keane; Writer: Kobe Bryant

Running Time: 6 minutes

In this heartfelt ode to basketball, Bryant narrates his...

Tfl announce 20 new projects for 2018 ScriptLab, with a strong focus on genre movies.

The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has announced the 20 new projects selected for the 2018 ScriptLab. 50% of this year’s projects have female directors (ten will be directed by women, nine by men, and one co-directed by a man and a woman).

The ScriptLab is a nine-month scriptwriting programme hosted by the TorinoFilmLab, involving a number of feature films at an early stage of development. Composed of two week-long residential workshops, one in Greece (March) and one in France (June), the ScriptLab also feeds in to TorinoFilmLab annual industry event the Tfl Meeting (this year running on the 23-24 November, as usual in parallel to the Torino Film Festival).

“We noticed a new yearning for genre cinema” comments TorinoFilmLabartistic director Matthieu Darras. “Several of these projects either explore the recent past, the 90s or early 2000s, or an imagined near future in various sci-fi survival stories”

With a strong...

While this year’s batch of Oscar-nominated live-action and documentary shorts remain mainly fixed on political and social justice issues, the animated group offers a bit of a respite, leaning towards personal stories and unexpected narratives bolstered by inventive animated techniques. From a stop-motion film about suitcases to a photorealistic look at the lives of some very naughty frogs, there’s nary a shared theme or experience to be found here.

Of course, when it comes to animation, looking good or providing a compelling story isn’t enough — both pieces need to fit together seamlessly. That’s exactly what the category’s two best picks do, and then some.

Ahead, we review each of the Oscar-nominated animated short films, including two very clear frontrunners, a pair of worthy competitors, and at least one damningly weak offering that never should have been included in an otherwise first-rate lineup. “Negative Space,” France...

The best entries in this year's crop of Oscar-nominated animated short films feature a distinctly adult sensibility. Yes, there's a typical Pixar entry that's quite charming. And a love letter to basketball great Kobe Bryant that just happened to be penned by Bryant himself. But it's Negative Space and Garden Party, the latter macabre enough to delight Alfred Hitchcock, that provide the most vivid pleasures. It's not surprising that these sophisticated efforts hail from France.

Negative Space, directed by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, employs stop-motion puppet animation to relate the story of a little boy who learned how to...

Despite the star power of Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” and the Pixar strength of “Lou,” “Negative Space” has emerged as the wild card in the race for animated short. It’s a poignant stop-motion work about a father and son bonding over the shared ritual of suitcase packing for his frequent business trips. It’s also the most acclaimed nominee, winning 52 awards throughout 137 festivals.

Appropriately enough, “Negative Space” became a case of life imitating art. Adapted from a poem by Ron Koertge, it was directed by the Baltimore-based duo, Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter (“Between Times”), who ventured to Vendôme, France, to make their short. They not only became expert packers but also efficient stop-motion craftspeople. They like the European vibe (they were previously artists-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film), and teamed with Ikki Films and Manuel Cam Studio.

Playing with Scale

The poem resonated with both directors,...

The Live Action and Animated 2018 Oscar Nominated Shorts Open at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63130) in St. Louis February 9th.

For the 13th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Feb. 9th. With two categories offered – Animated and Live Action– this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, March 4th.

Here’s the line-up:

Nimated Shorts (Estimated Running Time: 83 minutes)

Dear Basketball – Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant, USA, 5 minutes

Negative Space – Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, France, 5 minutes

Lou – Dave Mullins and Dana Murray, USA, 7 minutes

Revolting Rhymes – Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, UK, 29 minutes

Garden Party – Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon, France...

Best Picture favorite “The Shape of Water” dominated the Oscar craft categories with seven nominations — Cinematography, Production and Costume Design, Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. Guillermo del Toro’s period-fantasy romance only failed to snag a Visual Effects nomination.

“Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan’s experimental Best Picture nominee, captured six craft noms (Cinematography, Production Design, Editing, Score, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing); Denis Villeneuve’s brutalistic “Blade Runner 20149” scored five (Cinematography, Production Design, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing); and Joe Wright’s surprise Best Picture nominee, “Darkest Hour,” grabbed four (Cinematography, Production and Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling).

Making History

But the biggest crafts story was Rachel Morrison making Oscar history as the first female cinematographer to secure a nomination for her poetic work on “Mudbound.” She was joined by frontrunner Roger Deakins, who grabbed his 14th nomination for “Blade Runner 2049″ in search of his elusive win; Bruno Delbonnel,...

The Shape of Water, Get Out, Lady Bird, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led the 2018 Oscar nominations, with Guillermo Del Toro's horror/romance The Shape of Water scoring an impressive 13 nods.

All five of the aforementioned films were nominated for Best Picture, a list that also included Phantom Thread, The Post, Call Me By Your Name and Darkest Hour.

Del Toro was also nominated for Best Director, along with first timers Get Out's Jordan Peele and Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig. Christopher Nolan also received a nod for Dunkirk,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are set to reveal the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards in all 24 categories this morning. Films such as “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” are expected to earn multiple nominations this year following big wins at the Golden Globes and Critic Choice Awards.

Click here to watch the nominations announcement live. Nominations will be updated live below as they are announced.

Best Picture

“Call Me by Your Name”

“Darkest Hour”

“Dunkirk”

“Get Out”

“Lady Bird”

“Phantom Thread”

“The Post”

“The Shape of Water”

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Best Director

Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water

Christopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”

Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”

Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”

Jordan Peele, “Get Out”

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet “Call Me by Your Name”

Daniel Day-Lewis “Phantom Thread”

Daniel Kaluuya “Get Out”

Gary Oldman “Darkest Hour”

Denzel Washington “Roman J.

Ten short films are shortlisted by the Academy’s Animations and Shorts branch to vie for the final five nominations for Best Animated Short Film. The shortlist includes Pixar’s “Lou,” written and directed by Dave Mullins. The short premiered at SXSW earlier this year and was shown in theaters ahead of “Cars 3.”

Read More: 2018 Oscar Predictions: Best Animated Feature

Here are the shortlisted animated shorts; no one will be deemed a frontrunner until I have seen it.

Frontrunner:

“Lou”

Director: Dave Mullins (Pixar Animation Studios)

Contenders:

“Cradle”

Director: Devon Manney(University of Southern California)

“Dear Basketball”

Director: Glen Keane (Glen Keane Productions)

“Fox and the Whale”

Director: Robin Joseph (Robin Joseph)

“Garden Party”

Director: Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon (Mopa)

“In a Heartbeat”

Director: Esteban Bravo and Beth David (Ringling College of Art and Design)

“Life Smartphone”

Director: Chenglin Xie (China Central Academy of Fine Arts)

“Lost Property Office...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 short films that have been selected to advance in the voting process for the 90th Academy Awards. The 10 short films are vying for a nomination for Best Short Film. The shortlist includes the Pixar film “Lou,” written and directed by Dave Mullins. The short premiered at SXSW earlier this year and was shown in theaters ahead of “Cars 3.”

Read More:2018 Oscar Predictions: Best Animated Feature

One of the year’s highest profile short films is Don Hertzfeldt’s “World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts,” but it was left off the shortlist. IndieWire gave Hertzfeldt’s sequel an A+ review and the film already had a theatrical qualifying run. Hertzfeldt has been nominated for the Best Short Film Oscar twice: “Rejected” in 2000 and “World of Tomorrow” in 2016.

The 10 qualifying short films are listed...

Film Lineup Set For Inaugural Palo Alto International Film Festival

Palo Alto, CA . The Palo Alto International Film Festival (Paiff) has announced its film program for the 2011 festival. The lineup includes 20 features and 74 short films curated from award-winning films and film festival favorites that exemplify Paiff.s theme of innovation in art, film and technology.

Paiff proudly presents a lineup that challenges the art form, taking creative risks with technology in films like Braden King.s cross-platform feature .Here,. to the artistically inventive .Bombay Beach. by music video director Alma Har.el to documentaries like .Something Ventured. which delves into the world of Venture Capital firms.

.We.re seeing a new movement emerging . films are trying to live outside the cinema. They.re breaking out of traditional storytelling structures,. said Paiff.s Director Programming Alf Seccombe. .This festival spotlights the creative risk-taking that is inherent in innovation..

The 2011 festival kicks...

It’s lucky 13 for the Boston Underground Film Festival as they celebrate their raucous 13th annual edition this year. Opening with the much buzzed about bloody feature film Hobo With a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer and directed by Jason Eisener, the fest then barrels on for eight wild nights and days from March 24-31.

While there’s plenty of underground goodness from the U.S.A., this year Buff feels like it’s a much more international affair with several sick features from around the globe. There’s gory horror and quirky black comedy from Japan in the guise of Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Helldriver and Sion Sono’s Cold Fish; the Argentinian freak-out Phase7 by Nicolas Goldbart; David Blyth’s Wound is a psychological thriller from New Zealand; and Mark Hartley’s Machete Maidens Unleashed! is a look at Philippine exploitation cinema from the ’70s.

Stateside there’s Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane,...

Here's a little treat for you people who didn't make it to Sundance this year. Here's  Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter's short film Something Left, Something Taken in its entirety. The short is about the zodiac killer, kinda and is screening at Sundance. Be sure to visit their blog where they talk about everything in detail about the short.                                  

Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

 

 ...

Emily Carmichael (The Ghost and Us) has a new fantasy film in the 2011 Sundance Film festival. Plus, they're screening some other killer new genre shorts directed by the gals.

I love seeing familiar female faces listed as directors on the Sundance Film Festival short films lineup. The 2011 lineup is pretty nice;

Carmichael's new comedic fantasy short is The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting, and you can hear her discuss her movie here:

Something Left, Something Taken, directed and written by Ru Kuwahata with Max Porter, is an animated account of a couple who thinks they meet the Zodiac killer.

Something Left, Something Taken- Trailer from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

8 Bits, a French animated short by directors Valere Amirault, Sarah Laufer, Jean Delaunay, and Benjamin Mattern details a a fight between an 8-bit superhero and a high-def boss, in a retro-gaming world.

Sadly, we don't have video for The...