Shorts Competition
We are proud to present all of our Documentary, Live Action and Animated shorts nominees. Recipient(s) of the Festival’s Golden Reel Award for Narrative Short Film will be eligible for consideration in the Animated Short Film/Live-Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards®, subject to compliance with Academy® guidelines.
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And So We Put Goldfish In the Pool
Makoto Nagahisa / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / Japan / 2016 / 28 mins
One summer day, 400 goldfish were found in the swimming pool of a secondary school. This is a story about four 15-year old girls who released the fish there.
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Coin Boy
Chuan-Yang Li / Shorts Competition / Taiwan / 2016 / 24 mins
A true story based on the director's own experience when he was in elementary school. Growing up, we all face authorities as unique individuals in many ways to learn what we should and should not do. The enforcement of regulations protects the social orders, but takes away the uniqueness of each individual. This is a story about confronting one’s self when facing authority.
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Deer God
Tomorrow Mingtian / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / China, USA / 2016 / 14 mins
Old Guan, a native Oroqen hunter, goes into the woods to shoot "donkey deer" before his family leaves for America.
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Forever, Chinatown
James Q. Chan / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / USA / 2016 / 32 mins
FOREVER, CHINATOWN is the story of unknown, self-taught 81-year-old artist Frank Wong who has spent the past four decades recreating his fading memories by building romantic, extraordinarily detailed miniature models of the San Francisco Chinatown rooms of his youth.
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Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw)
Renee Zhan / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / USA / 2016 / 11 mins
HOLD ME (CA CAW CA CAW) is an 11 minute animated film about the troubled relationship between a large bird and a small boy. The film features hand-drawn 2D animation, as well as ink and watercolor painted backgrounds.
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I am JUPITER I am the BIGGEST PLANET
Matthew Victor Pastor / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / Australia, Philippines / 2016 / 14 mins
Silence in the red light district of Manila.
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Lola Loleng
Che Tagyamon / Shorts Competition / Philippines / 2016 / 8 mins
Grandma Loleng suffers from dementia. Her distant granddaughter tries to get to know her, only to unearth Grandma Loleng’s darkest wartime experiences.
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Occasionally, I Saw Glimpses of Hawai‘i
Christopher Makoto Yogi / Shorts Competition / USA / 2016 / 15 mins
A film essay looking at 100 years of Hawai‘i in film, explores issues of representation and gender. This filmic deconstruction is a lively, often infuriating examination of Hollywood's portrayal of the islands, highlighting the essential necessity of homegrown filmmaking.
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Please Come Again
Alisa Yang / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / Japan / 2016 / 9 mins
Narrating the collective and personal memory of three generations of Asian women though the lens of Japanese love hotels.
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Pria
Yudho Aditya / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / Indonesia, USA / 2017 / 21 mins
A teen living in rural Indonesia struggles between the traditions of his upbringing and his romantic idealization of the freedom of the West.
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Remember
Shunsaku Hayashi / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / Japan / 2015 / 9 mins
Leaving home, "I" receives a phone call. As "I" answers it, the house explodes. "I" goes to work and continues as normal…
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Tough
Jennifer Zheng / Shorts Competition, Programmers' Picks / UK / 2016 / 5 mins
Some things can only be understood with maturity. New light is shed on childhood cultural misunderstandings when a Chinese mother and her British-born daughter speak as adults for the first time.
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Under the Same Sky
Yoyo Li / Shorts Competition / China, USA / 2016 / 19 mins
During the Chinese government's national campaign on "equal" education, the different realities of a city boy and a countryside boy are revealed as they both go to school.
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