Seigo Tôno

Born in 1968 in Takarazuka-City, Japan. Studied journalism at Pepperdine University, Ca., USA. He spent three years as a student in Clermont-Ferrand, France, where he discovered the world of short films at its prestigious festival. Having been influenced by the festival, he went on to direct a short film, "Ichigo-Ichie"(35mm, b/w) in Los Angeles which was selected as an official selection of the Tokyo International Short Film Festival in 1998. After working in two Hollywood productions, he returned to Japan to write scripts for his own radio program in Osaka. He was a member of the Committee for Osaka European Film Festival from 1998 to 2000. He joined the Short Shorts Film Festival (SSFF) in 2000 as office manager and became one of the founding members of Short Shorts Film Festival Asia which is dedicated to promoting and supporting Asian short films. Together with SSFF, the two festivals are now held simultaneously as the SSFF & ASIA, and since 2003, he has been serving as its festival director. He has participated in numerous short film festivals as a member of jury, notably such festivals as "Asiana International Short Film Festival (Korea)," "International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece)", "Tehran International Short Film Festival (Iran),""Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Canada)" and "Rio De Janeiro International Short Film Festival (Brazil). Since 2013, he is active in promoting Japanese short films outside Japan, especially in the Middle East and North Africa regions, (Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia,) in collaboration with the Japanese Foreign Ministry. He is also an active film producer, having made a dozen of short films with directors from both Japan and abroad.