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Academy Awards® accredited and one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals, Short Shorts Film Festival (Ssff & Asia) starts annual “Screening in Autumn” today from Online Grand Theater (co-organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government).

Tickets for screening & talk events in October are also on sale from today.

This year, in addition to the screening of 2024 award winning shorts, specially invited short films “Haunted by the Sound of the Wind” starring globally recognized actress who became the ambassador of Tokyo International Film Festival, Rinko Kikuchi and “The Chicken” by Neo Sora whose feature film was nominated Venice Film Festival will be showcased.

Furthermore, “Women in Focus program” (in cooperation with TIFF), commemorating the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Switzerland “Swiss Eyes on Japan” program, and “Korean Shorts” program are also screened.

As the Online Grand Theater limited program, “Craft Stories Around Japan” starts global streaming today. 6 short films...

There is something rather understated about Neo Sora’s “The Chicken.” Although syringed with plenty of underlying meaning and enigmatic moments of pondering, there is a relative tranquillity throughout its thirteen-minute runtime which colours the short with a palpable lightness. Based on Naoya Shiga’s short story “An Afternoon on November 3rd”, one of 2020’s film festival favourites is undeniably an engrossing watch.

The Chicken is screening at Japan Society

The film revolves around Hiro (Junshin Soga), a young Japanese immigrant who now resides in New York but dreams of owning a farm in Siberia, living off his own produce and teaching his children the value of life in a grassroots environment. He feels out of place in modern America, with the weather “too hot,” the rent seemingly only ever increasing, and gentrification rife within all corners of the country. Yet, in line with his wife (Sandra Maren Schneider), a...