JURORS' INTERVIEWS JURORS' COMMENTS ■Mr. Gavelle As I watched the nominated films, I was impressed by the rich and sincere selection. Many filmmakers approached the destruction of the earth and its resources in the name of development. Through their work, I could see how much they devoted themselves to address this theme with militancy, to carry a message to the audience, and to provoke them. ■Ms. Narahashi The selected films were amazing! There are many good points in these films: good acting, magical shooting, they took advantage of the short film format. The films inspired me a lot. Serving as a juror makes me want to make films with young filmmakers. ■Mr. Hamano I enjoyed the short films, which were all shot in a bold way. I also enjoyed their stories. I was impressed by the filmmakers’ passion for making films. Every country has their own culture to make films and the filmmakers show off the best of their home culture. These films are excellent and they challenge the global problems of today. ■Mr. Bloom It was an honor and a pleasure to serve as a juror for the Short Shorts Film Festival EXPO 2005 at EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan. Overall, the entries were an outstanding collection of short films. I saw a lot of diversity in the nominated films: there were highly clever and original Live Action Narrative films, thought-provoking documentaries, flawlessly created films and so on. I was impressed with the depth and variety of the collection. ■Mr. Yanai I enjoyed watching 43 films from 18 countries, including documentaries, dramas and animations. I was impressed by these films which were about many different topics: the threat of modern society, love stories, friendships, etc. I preside over the Indies film festival for a long time. Many films are submitted to my festival by young filmmakers as well. Young filmmaker’s passion and their talents overwhelm me every year. Even though SSFF EXPO 2005 only screened short films, I still found the same passion from the filmmakers. It is important for us to raise the talents of young filmmakers. Don’t give up trying to make films, even if you cannot win any awards. I hope that young filmmakers will continue to create good films. JURORS' INTERVIEWS FRANCIS GAVELLE INTERVIEW with FRANCIS GAVELLE We started our interview with Mr. Gavelle by asking him to give us the Cannes definition of a short film. “The legal definition is that it be 59 minutes or less. One hour and it’s a feature. There’s no artistic definition though…a short film can be anything from fiction (drama, comedy, thriller), to animation, etc.” And what about the short films he screened as a juror for SSFF 2005 EXPO. “I was impressed. One of my favorites was ‘Iota Hor B’ from Whales. It’s an animated film that uses a split screen to show two different worlds. I give this film my own great prize, because it’s in contact with the theme of EXPO: Nature’s Wisdom. It’s a very interesting film too, it doesn’t give a message directly. That comes after the screening… With the split screen we see the changing of colors and the worlds and there are no answers at the end. You can’t tell if it is the end of the world or the beginning of something else.” We asked Francis to elaborate on his interest in film and why he chose short films. “The first time I went to Cannes, I was a teenager. I went with my friend and his parents and I didn’t even know it was the festival. Suddenly we were in Cannes and I saw all these people and advertisements everywhere and wow! Before we left to go home to Paris, I waited in the rain to see Jimmy Stewart and take photos of him. The photos turned out so bad that only I know it is him in the pictures. But I always remember that, standing under a small tree and waiting. Every time I go to Cannes, I have this sensation. I really have a love for cinema. As for short films…I don’t know. I remember seeing “Emilie Muller” at a special screening and it was so amazing. It’s a very sweet comedy, very intimate and very interesting. After the screening I did an interview with the director [Yvon Marciano]. It was my first step with shorts. I’ve done some shorts as an actor myself and I’ve met a lot of people from short films. Less people are interested in working for short films at Cannes. It’s all about the features and the Palme d’Or. Only three people work at Cannes shorts?I mean my division the Director’s Fortnight. So only three people watch about 500 films and we only program 10. Mr. Gavelle went on to talk about how impressed he was to see Tim Roth, President of the Camera d’Or Jury in 2004, fight for a short film he screened in Cannes. “He loved the film ‘Elephants Never Forget’ so much, he wanted it to win the Palme d’Or. It wasn’t eligible, so Mr. Roth went out of his way to meet with the director and introduce him to lots of people, including Walter Salles.” But let’s get back to SSFF EXPO 2005. “My favorite Japanese film is the national winner, so I’m very pleased. For me, ‘Blue and Orange’ is very tender, sensitive and also doesn’t have a direct message. But you can feel the emotion of the director. The animation was so sweet, so wonderful…I was very touched! You feel a direct sensation with the universe of the director in this film and when I realized the director was a woman I understood the love. It was touching and beautiful for me. But with many of the Japanese films, I’m sure I missed the meaning. It’s not my culture and it can be hard to catch the comedy. ‘Yuki’s Day Off’ is a good example. The film is sweet and touching, but I couldn’t completely understand it all. Maybe it’s too long, maybe they didn’t need to cut in such a speedy way? I don’t know, it’s the culture. But it too is a great film and a beautiful portrait of a woman.” And what is life? “Oh, that’s too hard. I need time to think. Hmmm….LIFE IS MADE OF MOMENTS.” JON BLOOM Interview with JON BLOOM Our sit down with Jon Bloom of the Academy Awards was quick, but very insightful! He came to Japan two and a half weeks earlier to travel about the country with his daughter and get to know the country’s rich cultural sights, foods and fun. But we were ready to get down the business of short films and Jon had a lot of input. “I really liked all the films. We rated them from one to ten, with ten being the highest, and I gave mostly sevens, eights and nines. I mean, these were the top forty out of 2,700 so they had to be good!” “I’m a filmmaker myself, so I always appreciate other people’s work, technique, etc. And with shorts, creativity is at a maximum while money I at a minimum! So, when I evaluate shorts, I look for uniqueness, wholeness and completeness (even if it is simple), thinking, creativity, the effectiveness of the filmmaking?low budgets are fine. Is this a special, touching and intelligent film? All of that is the basis of my judgment.” We pressed Jon for some constructive criticism for our national (Japanese) filmmakers. He was reluctant to blurt anything out, but did have some thoughts. “The Japanese films were very good. It was a good chance for me to watch Japanese films and learn more about Japan through these shorts. I can’t really say much about to help Japanese filmmaking because it is a cultural issue. The reality of short filmmaking worldwide is that there’s a very weak economic foundation. Shorts are made with vision and passion, but very little money?especially when you look at the budgets of TV shows, commercials and feature films. But the Japanese filmmakers need to deal with some of the realities of other filmmakers. Japan is an economic powerhouse?there must be more opportunities for filmmakers to get financing. There must be more opportunity in Japan than in the UK or Vietnam for that matter. And life for Jon? Well, “LIFE IS FUN!”