Extremely Short

Bungaku Bideo 1
| Original title: とても短い (Totemo mijikai) | French title: EXTRÊMEMENT COURT | Simplified Chinese title: 很短, 很短 | Spanish title: Extremadamente corto |
| Short animation | April 2024 | Japan, US | 5'18" | 4K | 1:1.85 | Trailer | Teaser | Making＠YouTube | Making@Vimeo | Bungaku Bideo | Yanai Initiative |

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Text & Voice FURUKAWA HIDEO
Music ISAJI SUNAO
Direction & Animation YAMAMURA KOJI
Based on the Short Story "Totemo mijikai" (2010) by FURUKAWA HIDEO
Planning & English Translation MICHAEL EMMERICH
Producer YAMAMURA KOJI, Assistant Producers YAMAMURA SANAE
Co-Production Yamamura Animation
Project Manager, The Yanai Initiative JOKO YUMI, YAMAZAKI SANAE
Production THE YANAI INITIATIVE at UCLA ＋ Waseda University
Voice Recording ERIC SIERCKS, Waseda International House of Literature
Music Performance ISAJI SUNAO, NIIMI KEIKO
Music Mixing ISOBE HIDEAKI
Sound Mixing SHIMADA MASASHI, Aoi Studio
Color Grading & DCP Lab Assist



A man who was looking for the shortest thing in Tokyo uttered the word "da" at the last moment of his life.
This work, produced as the first installment of the "Bungaku Bideo" collaboration project between contemporary Japanese literature and animation, is a recitation of "Totemo mijikai," an original work by Hideo Furukawa, by the author himself, and Koji Yamamura handled the animation.

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Awards (3):
Grand Prix of the Festival, The Golden Jabberwocky: 31st International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima 2024, Poland, 2024.10
Best Contemporary, Experimental Short: 19th Sapporo International Short Film Festival, Japan, 2024.10
Best Original Score Award: 21st London International Animation Festival 2024, UK, 2024.11
The judges felt that music was orchestrated as a performance on the screen, where the animation and music are apart and soon become unified. Both poetic and transformative, each note brings forth a new energy, as the viewer is drawn into the musical realm of life, death and beyond. The music creates a richness to the animation, a highly compelling, lyrical narrative alongside the dancing, swirling and floating visuals. The music and animation are intertwined, increasing in intensity, drawing you into the beauty of the work, and it’s musical realm before lifting us out and slowly coming to a halt.

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Official Selection (45):

56th Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes, France, 2024.05
18th Short Stop International Film Festival, Romania, 2024.06: Best Animation Nominee
17th International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR, Poland, 2024.06
16th International Short Film Festival Psarokokalo, Greece, 2024.07
12th Insomnia International Open-Air Animation Film Festival, Russia, 2024.07
28th Fantasia International Film Festival, Canada, 2024.07-08
28th Rhode Island International Film Festival, US, 2024.08
77th Edinburgh International Film Festival, UK, 2024.08
23rd Countryside Animafest Cyprus, Cyprus, 2024.08
22rd Imaginaria International Animated Film Festival, Italy, 2024.08
20th World Festival of Animated Film Varna, Bulgaria, 2024.09
1st Infinite Bodies 2024, Italy, 2024.09
38th Edmonton International Film Festival, Canada, 2024.09-10
9th Ajayu International Animation Festival, Peru, 2024.10
12th Canlandıranlar International Film Festival, Turkey, 2024.10
19th Sapporo International Short Film Festival, Japan, 2024.10
10th Taichung International Animation Festival, Taiwan, 2024.10
16th ReAnimania Int. Animation Film & Comics Art Festival of Yerevan, Armenia, 2024.10
14th Kuandu International Animation Festival, Taiwan, 2024.10
26th Bucheon International Animation Festival, South Korea, 2024.10
41st Tehran International Short Film Festival, Iran, 2024.10
12th Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival, US, 2024.10
34th IFF Message to Man, Russia, 2024.10
31st International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima 2024, Poland, 2024.10
19th Animatou Animation Film Festival Geneva, Switzerland, 2024.10
6th Open World Animation Festival, US, 2024.10
18th Big Cartoon Festival, Russia, 2024.10-11
67th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany, 2024.10-11
38th Leeds International Film Festival, UK, 2024.11
10th International Animation Film Festival - Gdansk, Poland, 2024.11
24 FRAME Future Film Fest, Italy, 2024.11
17th Pixel Vienna Animation Festival, Austria, 2024.11
11th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Japan, 2024.11
17th International Animation Festival ANIMANIMA 2024, Serbia, 2024.11
6th Feinaki 2024 Beijing Animation Week, China, 2024.11
17th Piccolo Festival dell'Animazione, Italy, 2024.11
9th Animation Marathon 2024, Athens, Greece, 2024.11
18th Beirut Shorts International Film Festival, Lebanon, 2024.11
21st London International Animation Festival, UK, 2024.11-12
17th Los Angeles Animation Festival 2024, US, 2024.12
6th Ionian Contemporary Animation Festival ICONA 2024, Greece, 2024.12
33rd International Animated Short Film Festival «Les Nuits Magiques», France, 2024.12
17th Festival International du Film d'Animation de Paris, France, 2025.01
36th Minimalen Short Film Festival, Norway, 2025.01
Anima 2025, 44rd Brussels International Animation Film Festival, Belgium, 2025.04

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Official Selection, off competition (6):
48th World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb 2024, Croatia, 2024.06: TIME FOR THE MASTERS
2nd Hiroshima Animation Season 2024, Japan, 2024.08
17th Animadeba International Animation Film Festival, Spain, 2024.09: Panorama
17th Animasyros International Animation Festival + Agora, Greece, 2024.09: Panorama
10th REX Animation Festival, Sweden, 2024.10-11: REXperimental
48th CINANIMA - International Animated Film Festival of Espinho, Portugal, 2024.11.08-17: International Grand Panorama

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Finalist (1):
4th New York Animation Film Awards (NYAFA), US, 2024.09.05
Semi Finalist (2):
3rd MIRADA CORTA Short Film Festival, Mexico, 2024,10
5th VENEZIA SHORTS Virtual Edition Award ,Italy, 2024.12.

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Screenings (13):
Quinzaine des Cinéastes 2024, Festival Scope, France, 2024.05.30-06.06
Quinzaine des Cinéastes 2024, Les Carmes, Orléans, France, 2024.06.05
a Quinzaine en salle. Sélection Quinzaine: Courts métrages #1, Forum des images, Paris, France, 2024.06.08
Festival Quinzaine en salle: Programme court-métrages 1, Comoedia, Lyon, France, 2024.06.08
Eprise de la Quinzaine des Cinéastes Programme de Cinq Court métrages, Utopia, Avignon, France, 2024.06.13
Eprise de la Quinzaine des Cinéastes Programme de Cinq Court métrages, Utopia, Bordeaux, France, 2024.06.13
Quinzaine des Cinéastes 2024: Programme court-métrages 1, Dulac Cinémas, Paris, France, 2024.06.13
Yanai Initiative Commemorative Screening & Talk Event-”Extremely Short”, Japan, 2024.07.25
Thank you Ginza 42nd Anniversary Special Screening of "Bokushin Gallery Retrospective Exhibition", Japan, 2024.09.23
Director's Fortnight Extended, Acropolis Cinema, Los Angeles, US, 2024,11,01-03
Quinzaine des Cinéastes + Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, Brasil, 2024.11.02-04
Feinaki Tour New Year Screening Event, Shenzhen, China, 2024.12.27-29

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Review (2):
...What Furukawa shows by postponing meaning and animation by deconstructing the elements of language is that the conditions for the existence of language are uncertain to begin with, and that even in the midst of that uncertainty, there are forms and gestures that can just barely emerge. ...
Media Arts Current Content | Transcending the Existing World: Furukawa Hideo and Animation | Nomura Takaaki | 2024.10.23 | Japan |

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...Extremely short indeed, since this animated vignette lasts just 5 minutes, including the credits. Yet it's the whole of existence that bubbles up in this jolt that's both primitive and surreal. Japan's Kōji Yamamura has created an astonishing film whose tension is as insane as it is existential.
Festival de Cannes 2024 : nos 10 courts métrages préférés | Le Polyester | Gregory Coutaut | 024.05.25 | France |

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Articles / Interviews (8):
Fukushima Minyu Shimbun; Minyu Net »Selected for Cannes Film Festival Directors Fortnight Original animation by Mr. Furukawa (Koriyama native), 2024.04.19
Shizuoka Shimbun »3 Japanese films to be selected for Cannes “Directors’ Fortnight”, 2024
UCAL »Film commissioned by UCLA professor earns spot at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, by Sean Brenner, UCAL, 2024.05.07
Animation Magazine »Transpacific Animation Effort ‘Extremely Short’ Makes World Premiere at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, 2024.05.10
Kyodo Cannes Film Festival opens; director Coppola and others compete for top prize, »Toyama Shimbun/»Okinawa Times, 2024.05.14
Yomiuri Shimbun »Cannes Film Festival, the newspaper's reporter reports on the 12 days full of topics... Competition section focuses on Coppola's work, Culture Department Matsuda Takuya, 2024.05.14
Yomiuri Shimbun A big battle of the big films, a controversial film by a master is controversial... Who will win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival? "Very Short," »a new film by Koji Yamamura, 2024.05.26
Le Polyester »Festival de Cannes | Entretien avec Kōji Yamamura, 2024.05.26

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