Program C 13:50~15:20

On a hot summer day, Mao returned to her parents’ house for the first time in four years. Although she hadn’t properly kept in touch with her single father during those four years, she suddenly brought her fiancé back with her. She remembers.
When my mother left the house, I felt the gentle embrace of my childhood friend Kanae. Family gatherings at my parents’ house, meals with old friends, the local riverbed, and a photo of my mother. All of these unremarkable moments inevitably draw Mao into memories of her mother and her childhood friend Kanae… A short story where memory, fantasy, and everyday life intertwine.

Genre: Drama
Year of Production: 2024
Running time: 19 minutes
Country of Production： Japan

Direction, Writing, Editing: Yota
Assistant writing: Rintaro Matsuzuki
Cinematography: Yurinosuke Matsushita
Rendition: Shin Aota, Hai Fangyuanzi, Shota Urashima, Rintaro Matsuzuki
Sound: Shin Aota
Recording: Rintaro Matsuzuki, Rikuto Iwata, Katsuki Sato
Music: Seitaro Matsumoto

Yuna Hinata, Nanami Mitoya, Ariya Konishi, Jiro Ishimura, Chikama Hashizume, Yuyu Fujii, Momo Omiya

Director Yota Kitano

I started making films in my first year of university. In addition to independent films like ‘Decalcomania’ (selected for the 35th Waseda Film Festival) and ‘Sawa and Rin’, I also work on commercials and music videos. My first feature film ‘Woman’ was selected as a promising new director at the Kanazawa Film Festival 2024 and won the audience award at the Waseda Film Festival. It was released in theaters in May 2025 under the film distribution label Cinemago. My latest short film ‘Backflow’ is currently being submitted to film festivals. Additionally, I have participated in many projects as a colorist, gaining a reputation for a wide range of grading, from luxurious, solid visuals to vibrant and colorful images.

A young man learns how to breathe again after the encounter with the man who finds beauty in mundane.

Year of Production: 2024
Running time: 14 minutes
Country of Production： Denmark
Director, writer：Natsumi Kuriya
Producer：Kano Yoshizawa
Key Cast：Matteo Serafimovski

Natsumi Kuriya

Natsumi is a filmmaker from Japan. After finishing her study on the 20th century art and philosophy, she has moved to London to pursue her passion for film. Her current projects of filmmaking, film critique, and curatorial screenings attempt to reflect on themes such as vanishing home and urban spaces, mysticism in everyday life, ambivalence of nostalgia, desired body and eating habits, and cemeteries in different cultures.

Who is the precious person to you? Do you have any pictures with that person?

Genre:
Year of Production: Documentary
Running time: 4 minutes
Country of Production： Japan

Directed by： Yuto Yamaguchi
Assistant director： Kimito Tanaka
1st Camera： Momoka Kajimura
2nd Camera： Satoe Yamada
2nd Camera： Keisho Ozaki
Recording： Emi Ikuta

Director Yuto Yamaguchi

Born in Osaka, Japan. After experiencing the loss of my mother to suicide while in university, I began creating visual works addressing social issues. During my time at Kansai University, my short film was selected for an international film festival. As of 2025, I am currently producing a feature film themed around parent-child relationships and suicide.

At the mercy of strange hands, a collage creature is assembled and disassembled into different configurations. What will they turn into next?

Year of production: 2024
Running time: 5 minutes
Country of production: United States
Director: Diane Christiansen, Allie Trigoso

Director　Diane Christiansen

iane Christiansen is a visual artist, musician, and social worker whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, stop-motion animation, and large-scale collaborative installations. Her work explores themes of impermanence, interconnectedness, and the cycles of birth, death, and decay. These themes are a constant thread throughout her diverse body of work, which is marked by a deep interest in the transient nature of life and its emotional and physical processes.
Christiansen’s work has been widely exhibited across the United States, including in New York City, Los Angeles, Marfa, Texas, and Denver, as well as internationally in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Recent exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Arts Club of Chicago. Her animations have also been screened at festivals and galleries worldwide.

Director　Allie Trigoso

Allie Trigoso is an animator and cartoonist living in Chicago, IL. Dark comedy and strange humanoids are mainstays of her work, as well as narratives centered on ugliness, obsession, and difficult relationships. She uses a mixed media approach informed by the playfulness and visual language of retro toys, combining drawn subjects, stop-motion, 3D modelling, and to the end of creating silly, nightmarish worlds. Allie currently teaches animation at DePaul University.

“When I was young, I had dreams,” “I never really had dreams to begin with,” “I’ve lost sight of my goals,” “I don’t know how to live my life.” People spending their days in despair as they navigate society.
The protagonist of this story also shares similar struggles.
Yumi, who works at a film production company, was living a lethargic and lonely life amidst the relationships at work and home. One day, she receives a request from her former close friend, singer-songwriter Asuka, to shoot the cover photo for her upcoming album.
Unlike Yumi, Asuka was on the brink of a major debut… .
Directed and Written by： Harada Ryo
Cinematography： Yuki Mori
Lighting： Daishin Sato
Recording： Rikimaru Uchida
Assistant direction： Shinichiro Ogawa
Support： Konami Saito
Music：Shoki
Theme song： “Sakizitsu”
Written and sung by HARA AYANO
Arranged by： Shinichi Mitsui

Madoka Watanabe, Ayano Hara, Yuiko Machi

Director Harada Ryo

Born in 1997, Graduated from Aichi Prefecture, Graduated from “Japan Institute of the Moving Image”Featured Works and Screening “Towards a Farewell” (2019) BIFF2019 ASIA CO-PRODUCTION STUDENT FILMS FROM KOREA × CHINA KOREA × JAPAN Obu Film Festival 2020
“Yuzame”(2022) TOKYO Youth Film Festival 2022

A pleasant summer sauna experience is about to go awry as an ancient guardian spirit is not fond of moderncomforts.

Genre: Comedy, horror, fantasy
Year of Production: 2025
Running time: 6 minutes
Country of Production： Finland

Director： Tuomo Mäntynen
Cinematographer & editor： Jouka Konttinen
Sound designer： Johannes Ukkonen
Composer： Samuel Laukkanen
Tuomo Mäntynen & Johannes Ukkonen

Director　Tuomo Mäntynen

Tuomo Mäntynen is an independent filmmaker from Finland, specialising in micro-budget productions, usually setting them in the deep forests of his home country. While being open to anygenre, he likes to experiment with what he calls ”minimalistic fantasy” or ”minimalistic scifi”.

The only memory left to Mori from her father is the audiorecording of the story he told him. Mori listens to this talefrom time to time.
One day, a new teacher comes to school. When Mori sees theteacher, she thinks he is his father. Mori’s insistence on thisissue turns into an emotional bond between her and her teacher.

Written and Directed by： Yakup Tekin Tangac
Producer： Yakup Tekin Tangac、Vefa Geylani
Director of Photography：Emre Pekçakır
Editing： Doruk Kaya (KUDA)、Amir Etminan
Music：Mustafa Biber

Hayrünisa Akbaş
Ozan Çelik
S. Emrah Özdemir
Ömer Şahin
Muhtaber Şeker

Director　Yakup Tekin Tangac

Yakup Tekintangaç, who was born in Ağrı in 1980, generally focuses on the themes of childhood, identity andbelonging with his short films. He received awards frommany national and international festivals with his short film “Azad”. This movie also reached 1.5 million views on YouTube. His new short film, “Morî”, supported by theEuropean Union’s Civil Thinking Programme, had its worldpremiere in the main competition section of the 70th International Oberhausen Short Film Festival, one of themost prestigious festivals in the world. Morî’s festival journey continues.