"Tonight is like a reunion. We have many filmmakers here. I would like to enjoy our short films tonight but also celebrate many great films," Tetsuya Bessho, an actor and president of the organizer of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, said in his address at the event.

Jason Reitman, director of the upcoming sequel to the Ghostbusters series, took part in the event as the recipient of a 2001 audience award at the film festival for "In God We Trust."

"I'm not sure there's a more pure form of filmmaking than making short films," Reitman said.

"It's extraordinary to make a short film and to one day get a phone call saying, 'We'd like to bring you to Japan.' And it was a dream," he said.

Kawase, a Cannes Film Festival award winner who has been tapped to direct the official film of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, said, "Even if it's in a time period of 20 minutes, you can have a portrayal of life reflected in the piece."

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Singaporean director Yee Wei Chai's film "Benjamin's Last Day at Katong Swimming Complex," which won the grand prix at the Japanese film competition in 2018, and "The Human Face," a documentary about Kazuhiro Tsuji, who became the first Japanese to win the Academy Award for makeup and hairstyling, among others, were screened during the event.

The annual short film competition in Japan, which began in 1999, is one of Asia's largest short film festivals. The grand prize winner at the Japanese festival is eligible for an Oscar nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thursday's event was co-organized by Japan House Los Angeles, a Japanese Foreign Ministry facility used to promote the country's culture.

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