Selected films from short film competition

Mark Schilling

Film critic, journalist, translator, and author

He began working for The Japan Times in 1989. Since 2005, he has been writing articles about the Japanese film industry for Variety, a major Hollywood trade magazine.

Since 2000, he has served as program advisor for the Udine Far East Film Festival, the largest Asian film festival in Europe.

At FEFF Udine, he has conceived and supervised special features on Nikkatsu action films (2005), Shintoho Studios (2010), Japanese sci-fi/fantasy films (2016) and Japanese films of the 1980s and 1990s (2023/24).

Literary works:『Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films』（2003年）、『No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema』（2007年）、『Art, Cult and Commerce: Japanese Cinema since 2000』（2019年）

He also wrote the original story for Convenience Store Story, directed by Miki Satoshi, which was released in Japan in August 2022 and screened at film festivals around the world.

Kanako Fujita

Film producer, Sales, Writer from Tokyo.

After graduating from King’s College London with a BA in Film Studies, he has produced films in the UK and Japan. He will set up a London-based film production and distribution company, Felis Pictures Ltd., in 2024 and expand to Tokyo in 2025. He will participate in the Rotterdam Lab in 2025 and the Producer Hub at the Busan International Film Festival in 2024. He will also participate in critic workshops such as the Campus program at the Udine Far East Film Festival and GoCritic! at Fest Anča as a film writer for English media.

Currently, she is developing multiple projects, both feature films and short films, including “Push Button Syndrome” directed by Murakami Riko, which won the Asia Discovery Award at the BIFAN It Project Market and was selected as a finalist in the Woman In Fan category at the Sitges Film Festival. In addition, as a film curator/sales, she will be running the London International Fantastic Film Festival from 2024, and will be in charge of distributing the Lithuanian short film “NAIKU,” which won the Grand Prix at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in 2023 and was released in Japanese theaters as part of Mirrorliar Films Season 5.

Woohyun Bang

Cameraman

Born in Cheonan, South Korea, in 1982. Graduated from the Cinematography and Lighting course at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image.

At film school, he studied under Kenji Hagiwara, a famous cinematographer who represents the Japanese film industry. He started to make movies with Watanabe brothers in student days, and he serve as cinematographer of all films directed by Hirobumi Watanabe is cinematography.

He has been involved in Otawara Gutonsha’s productions since its inception, and is dedicated to black-and-white visual expression. His powerful and beautiful images have earned him high praise from film industry professionals and film fans both in Japan and abroad.

Manami Kawate

She was selected as the runner-up in Miss International Japan 2024, one of the world’s three major beauty pageants. With an interest in the process and mechanisms of new value creation in general, she is researching and practicing innovation and startups, as well as the DE&I, aesthetic sense, and strategic narratives required there, with knowledge creation theory at the core. With an interest in documentaries and filmmaking, she is involved in the production of a documentary about refugees in immigration detention centers. She is currently studying at the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University.

Hideyuki Suga

President of Utsunomiya Kyowa University and Utsunomiya Junior College, Chairman of the Tochigi Prefectural Council for Cultural Promotion, Chairman of the Tochigi Symphony Orchestra, and Director of the Utsunomiya Cultural Creation Foundation.