Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia director Seigo Tono has been with the event since its second edition in 2000, when it was called the American Short Shorts Film Festival and showed only U.S. films. Since then it has evolved into what Tono describes as "a global event, featuring cutting-edge shorts from around the world."

"Our aim is to make short films better known as an entertainment medium," Tono tells The Japan Times. "We also hope to offer audiences in Japan a more nuanced view of the world, one not found in widely available feature films here. At the same time, we support young Japanese filmmakers by raising the bar for local short films and offering a gateway to the international stage."

The festival has also kept pace with the digital revolution, switching from projection in the 16 mm, 35 mm and D-2 video formats to digital betacam tapes and finally HDCAM tapes and ProRes data files. Meanwhile, the selection committee has shifted from watching films on VHS cassettes ("Imagine having nearly a thousand VHS cassette tapes in a tiny office space!") to Vimeo and other online streaming platforms. This has made submitting work easier, with more than 5,000 shorts now arriving annually.