The Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA), an Academy Award-qualifying short film festival based in Tokyo, has announced the programme for its Screening in Autumn, and generative AI gets a strand of its own alongside the year's prize-winners. According to the festival's announcement, screenings run from November 5 to 8 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and kino cinéma Shinjuku, then stream worldwide from November 9 to 22 through its Online Grand Theater on LIFE LOG BOX.
The festival bills the AI section as a look at the future of cinema, built with partners including CapCut, the production company TYO and TOPVIEW JAPAN. It includes a CapCut AI Film Program meant to show the imagery and storytelling AI tools make possible, and TOKYO STORIES_season2, a set of new AI-generated shorts about the city by 30 emerging creators. Ryuta Miyake, screenwriter of The Complex, is due to join a TOPVIEW JAPAN session on where AI meets narrative filmmaking.
The rest of the programme draws on the competition. More than 50 shorts picked by the programmers are split into six themed programmes, led by Speedy!, which won the 2026 Grand Prix (George Lucas Award), plus the official winners in live action, animation and non-fiction; the festival says several are eligible for next year's Oscars. Other strands cover women-led films with the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, including Jing Zou's Cannes Critics' Week winner Lili Alone and work by directors from Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Puerto Rico and Japan, as well as Japanese landscapes, farming and food, and a run of eerie thrillers.
For the industry, a seminar co-hosted with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government brings in Florian Fernandez of the Cannes Short Film Corner and Rendez-vous Industry by video while five Japanese directors pitch their work. The festival also holds its first in-person market screenings, giving buyers an early look at titles from its online market. Tokyo advance tickets start at ¥1,500, and an online pass costs $5 during early booking.
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