News & Reports

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA) 2026, one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals accredited by the Academy Awards®, announced today—Friday, June 5, Environment Day—the winner of the Minister’s Award. This award is presented to the film from all competition selections that delivers the most powerful message regarding environmental issues.

The film selected for the SSFF & ASIA 2026 Save the Earth! Minister’s Award is After Us (Directed by Wahid Ibn Reza), a Canadian animation. Set in a world where humanity has vanished, the story follows a wolf and a wolverine on a journey to find a way to coexist with nature.

Official Link: https://www.shortshorts.org/2026/program/after-us/

In 2008, SSFF & ASIA established the “Stop! Global Warming Competition” in collaboration with the “Challenge 25 Campaign,” a national movement to prevent global warming. In 2013, it evolved into the “Save the Earth! Competition” to showcase films covering a broader range of environmental topics beyond just global warming. Since 2020, the initiative has expanded into presenting various awards under the “Save the Earth!” banner, aiming to raise awareness about increasingly diverse global issues. Furthermore, the festival participates in the “Deco-Katsu Oendan” (Decarbonization Action Support Group), a public-private partnership that promotes and supports a national movement (“Deco-Katsu”) to create a new, rich lifestyle leading to a decarbonized society. Through this film, we hope to encourage viewers to re-examine environmental issues and inspire hope for the future. We highly appreciate your media coverage and feature articles on this announcement.

SSFF & ASIA 2026 Save the Earth! Minister’s Award, the Ministry of the Environment

“After Us”

Director：Wahid Ibn Reza /5:05/ Canada / Animation / 2025

Amid the silence of human ruin, a wolf and a wolverine learn to trust, searching for a new possible world.

＜Comment from the Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Hirotaka Ishihara ＞

This short film is an exceptionally thought-provoking work that portrays the essence of coexistence with nature through the perspective of animals, set in a world enveloped in silence after the disappearance of humankind. The film delicately yet powerfully expresses the resilience of nature to regenerate even after destruction, as well as the possibility of a new harmony emerging within it, reminding us once again of the importance of environmental conservation.

We highly commend the work for presenting environmental issues not as “some distant future crisis,” but as “issues that require action from us today,” and for its ability to inspire empathy across generations and languages. We sincerely hope that this cultural message, which firmly contributes to the realization of a sustainable society, will encourage each and every individual to take concrete action.

“After Us”

Director：Wahid Ibn Reza

Based in Vancouver, BC, Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Wahid Ibn Reza has a distinct creative voice shaped by his path from engineering to the arts. With more than a decade of VFX and animation experience, he’s contributed to Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated projects. He has also directed live-action and animated shorts, rooted in sci-fi, fantasy, comedy and action. (…)

【Comments from the Director】

Thank you Short Shorts Film Festival for honoring our film “After Us” with the “Save the Earth! Minister’s Award”.

It’s an incredible honor, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I’d like to take this moment to thank the National Film Board of Canada for producing the film.

I got complete creative freedom making the film with them. And I don’t think I’ll ever have that ever again.

So, thank you for that. I’d like to thank everybody who worked on the movie and our friends and family who sacrificed a lot so we could work on it. Thank you all very very much.

Lastly I’d like to dedicate this to my daughter, Samara Wahid. She is five and half years old. And I really hope that together we can make the planet a better place for her and her generation to grow up in. Thank you.   Wahid Ibn Reza