At the movies: Nishikawa judges short films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival

How do you pick an award-winning short film?

Forget set criteria. Instead, engage in a deep discussion with your fellow judges, relying on your own deep knowledge and experience in cinema.

That was the process for Binghamton University Associate Professor of Cinema Tomonari Nishikawa, who served on the jury for the 45th Hong King International Film Festival’s short film competition.

One of the oldest film festivals in Asia, HKIFF showcases mainly commercial films, including narratives, documentaries and animation from all over the world, said Nishikawa, who also chairs Harpur College’s cinema program. The festival also features short and non-commercial films, including experimental work.

Nishikawa has a long history with this festival; his short film Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon won a Jury Award there in 2017. He has also shown others: Amusement Ride in 2020, Tokyo – Ebisu in 2011 and Lumphini 2552 in 2010. Adjunct lecturer Daïchi Saïto has also shown his films at the HKIFF: Chiasmus and Chasmic Dance in 2005, All That Rises in 2008 and Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis in 2010.

Nishikawa was invited to join the jury for the short film competition in early March. The festival took place both online and in person this year from April 1 through 12.

For the short film competition, three jury members — Nishikawa, film director and programmer Maike Mia Höhne and cinematographer Ming-Kai Leung — watched 19 nominees, all under 20 minutes. They then discussed the entries one by one over Zoom.

“Each of us shared what elements we thought were compelling and remarkable with the others,” Nishikawa said. “The whole process was fun, and I enjoyed the conversation with the other jury members as the way we see a work of art is slightly different.”

They first winnowed the entries down to a half-dozen, and then chose Gabriel Herrera’s Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit Into His Suit for the top Firebird Award and Sasha Svirsky’s animation Vadim on a Walk for the Jury Award. Blessed Winter by Emetjan Memet also received a special mention.

Herrera’s film pictures a man and his motorcycle in a square aspect ratio similar to a vinyl record jacket, while Svirsky’s work depicts the protagonist’s worry through the use of repetitive sound and glitch-like visual effects.

“A series of allegorical shots suggests the authority using a machine to invade the indigenous land, then the machine is abandoned in nature,” Nishikawa said of Herrera’s work. “The color is powerful, the lighting is gorgeous and everything on the screen looks staged carefully, while some of the performance looks improvised or amateurish. I enjoyed this mismatch a lot, and it works well to make fun of people with such a power.”