NOWNESS Shorts Selection

Launched in 2010, NOWNESS is a global creative culture platform dedicated to creative excellence in storytelling and celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday. It operates offices in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and collaborates with established artists and filmmakers. This programme features five short films, selected from the NOWNESS Short Film Awards and NOWNESS ASIA curated series, alongside NOWNESS CHINA commissioned works by Singaporean director Anthony Chen and Japanese director Neo Sora.

Life is Snow
Dir: Zhang Yaoyuan
Japan/China, 2024, Japanese/Putonghua, 31min

Laid-off worker Ota – a Japanese war orphan who grew up in China – goes to his former manager to ask for another chance at work, but the encounter leads to an altercation. Ota accuses the manager of assaulting him, but his crusade for justice is thwarted at every turn.

Remains of the Hot Day
Dir: Zhang Wenqian
China, 2024, Putonghua, 24min

In the late 1990s, three generations of an extended family share a household. Over a hot summer day, a six-year-old girl witnesses the grown-ups in her family trying their best to stay afloat, blissfully unaware that they are at the cusp of great change.

Me & Mazzy Melancholy
Dir: David Tse
Australia, 2024, English/Mandarin/Japanese, 13min

If misery loves company, what about loneliness? Three lonely souls – a woman who walks around with a suitcase, a Japanese man with a house full of plants, and a Chinese man who hides behind his penguin suit – confront their physical and emotional isolation in an empty Melbourne.

Reflection
Dir: Anthony Chen
China, 2024, Putonghua/English, 7min

In a dense Malaysian rainforest, a man chooses to shut himself off from the world. He races across the tropical environment, trying to run away from the shadows of his past. But he soon discovers that like the torrential downpour coming down on him, memories are impossible to escape from.

A Very Straight Neck (Asian Premiere)
Dir: Neo Sora
Japan/China, 2025, Japanese, 10min

In this surreal adaptation of a short graphic novel by Narazaki Momoe, Ando Sakura plays a woman who wakes up with a serious pain in her neck. As she recalls memories of a late childhood friend, the violence of the world starts to permeate her life in odd physical ways.