This spring, JCCC hosted the 2nd Annual Japanese Shorts Festival (JSF) which ended with a celebration of the student filmmakers’ accomplishments at the JSF Screening & Awards Ceremony on April 25 in the Hudson Auditorium.
Fourteen original Japanese-language shorts were submitted for judgment this year, representing the work of thirty-nine students from JCCC, the University of Kansas, the Kansas City Art Institute, Wichita State University, and Missouri State University. Topics of the shorts included a wizard with a time-stopping hat, a lonely student in a haunted house, a witch with her new familiar, a channel-skipping TV, a pony-tailed pigeon, magical glasses that show you more about people than you might like, a how-to on making cookies, a basketball playing puppy, a spoiled shopping addict, a princess whose wish is answered in an unexpected way, a rakugo performance about Starbucks, a Japanese fairytale, the origin story of the Daruma and the search for a little, lost (really lost) flower.
Watch all fourteen shorts (subtitled in English)
As you can tell from those brief descriptions, the JSF puts virtually no limits on filmmakers’ topics or forms. There are no required or suggested themes because, although grammar and vocabulary skills are important factors in communication, the point of the JSF is not to determine who is “best” at Japanese syntax and semantics. Successful communication also includes visual and aural nonverbal components. Recognizing this, the JSF encourages students to integrate the Japanese they are learning with music, sound effects, artwork, voice tone, facial expressions, gestures, camera work, and lighting to communicate their message to their audience—regardless of whether that message is serious or just for fun.
So, if you’re going to be a Japanese language student in the Spring 2027 semester at any level at any secondary or post-secondary school in Kansas or Missouri, take a look at our shorts requirements on the Festival website, then consider forming a production team of up to four classmates and joining us next year. Entry forms for the 3rd Annual Japanese Shorts Festival will be posted on the Festival website in January 2027.
The 2nd Annual Japanese Shorts Festival was a rousing success! Fourteen films were shown, representing the work of 39 students from JCCC, the University of Kansas, the Kansas City Art Institute, Wichita State University, and Missouri State University.