SAPPORO SHORT FEST 2023

JAPAN PREMIERE

KAWAUSO

One day, a girl meets a Japanese river otter. They try to communicate, but it doesn't go very well. This is because the Japanese river otter is already extinct, and it is not possible to actually interact with the girl. They existed in separate spaces.
By depicting the Japanese river otter, which is said to have gone extinct in 2012, this short film presents an opportunity to reconsider what the modern society has sacrificed.

Akihito Izuhara

Animation | Japan | 2023 | 0:15:22

KA3NARI

Three people living in Tokyo.
The sky is gloomy.
Three thunderclaps are flying around them.

One late summer day.
Cosmo heads for the mountains with Aoi and Mizuki. Regularly, the three of them go into nature to spend time together, not by showing it to each other.
Thunder rumbles, the wind whistles.
They talk about what they share separately in the green space and in conversation, without ceasing and with subtle differences and instability.

In the darkness.
We are haunted by the sensations we feel within ourselves floating with the sounds of fireworks and insects.
The sound of the river echoes and the flames make everyone's senses feel like they are melting into each other.

The coziness, displacement, and fit of the rough triangle among the three of us becomes a shared moment as our senses are burned and melted in the darkness of nature at night and in the mixture of sounds. We rely on the feeling of resonating with this synaesthesia.

The three of us are walking down different paths as the night dawns and the dreary days continue, but the shared feeling of having spent this same time together is more certain than the uncertain future.

Mizuho Otagiri

Fiction, Drama | Japan | 2023 | 0:24:41

THE HOMING

In a mansion in the woods, there lives a family of two: the daughter is a dedicated swimmer and the mother is a best-selling novelist. One day, a man visits their place. He is the mother's new editor.

Hinata Ishihara

Drama, Romance, Mystery, Family | Japan | 2023 | 0:26:16

  • Mature
  • Mature/Nudity
  • Student Director

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

OUT OF COMPETITION

THEMATIC PROGRAMMES

All Programmes