Limkokwing students attended an exclusive screening of Japanese short films held at the University Hall of Fame on the 5th March. The screening was followed by a symposium featuring Tetsuya Bessho, founder of the Short Shorts Film Festival.

Short Shorts Film Festival is one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals and a qualifying film festival for the annual Academy Awards. Tetsuya Bessho, an actor and TV and radio personality founded the film festival in 1999 in order to introduce Japanese audience to the world of short films.

The film festival has always been a crucial part of the university’s academic as Limkokwing University has held the honour of hosting the event in Malaysia for the past years. Such collaborations encourage industry involvement in the teaching of our students and also open doors of opportunities for the students to watch and learn from award winning short films from all around the world. One of the films screened last year, ‘Phone call’ directed by Mat Kirkby went on to win Academy Awards for ‘Best Short Films, Live Action’.

The special screening commenced with a short film titled ‘Frog in the Well’, by Ken Ochi-Ai which depicts the journey of a young man throughout Japan in order to fulfil his late mother’s final wish. The next two short films titled, ‘A Soccer Story’ and ‘Half & Half’, were some of the best works by Japanese short film makers produced in 2014.

When addressing the students, Bessho urged them to be creative and be willing to follow their dreams. He said though he was a lawyer by profession, his passion has always been in films, thus he chose to pursue an acting career, eventually establishing the Short Shorts Film Festival. He said he initially looked down on short films as he considered them “experimental” and “not of good quality”, but some of the excellent works by short film makers he watched 17 years ago changed his perception towards short films.

“Even in 5 to 10 minutes, you can express what you want to and prove your talent and creativity by using short quality content,” he exclaimed.

He started seeing short films as the futuristic content of the 21st century and believed other industries aside from the film industry would greatly benefit from short films’ ability to send a direct and impactful message in a short period of time. He encouraged the students to submit their short films to the upcoming Short Shorts Film Festival in Tokyo.

Digital film and television student, Orista Primadewa Hadiwiardjo from Indonesia said he had learnt a lot about short film production especially the combination of animation, stop motion and acting skills. He was particularly fascinated by the Japanese for their creativity and diversion from the mainstream, a quality promoted in Limkokwing University. He was grateful to the University for bringing such events to the campus, which exposed students to industry standards and expectations.

“I believe that every other place teaches similar theories about film-making, however here in Limkokwing University, we are provided with the suitable environment, especially to build our network by working with film makers from around the world,” he said.

The event ended with a Question and Answer session where students asked Bessho questions about his experience and journey in the film industry. The screening and seminar opened students’ eyes to the world of short film production and the expected industry standards to achieve success.

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