Hokkaido University COI-NEXT ``Co-Creation Center for Life Design for Mind and Body'' (hereinafter referred to as Hokkaido University COI-NEXT) aims to provide new learning through young people's exploration of values and creative experiences. In cooperation with the short film festival "Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia*," we will be holding a "Short Story Contest" for junior high and high school students from all over the country.

In line with this, from August 1, 2023 (Tuesday), we will begin accepting short stories with the themes of "inclusiveness," "diversity," and "gender."

As diversity continues to expand and we enter an era in which the individual is valued, each person has their own thoughts and stories. Since this is a theme that everyone can relate to, how can we express our feelings there? We want you to leave your own images and words in the form of a short story. We are also considering future initiatives such as turning the winning works in this contest into short films.

For more information, including application requirements, please click here. *You will be redirected to the university's core website.
　
*Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia... Tetsuya Bessho, an actor and member of the American Actors Guild (SAG), started the festival in 1999 with the desire to introduce "short films", which he had discovered in the United States, as a new video genre to Japan. Founded the American Shorts Film Festival. In 2001, the name was changed to Short Shorts Film Festival (SSFF), and in 2004 it was certified as an Academy Award-certified film festival. In the same year, the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia (Co-hosted by SSFF ASIA, Tokyo) was born with the aim of disseminating new visual culture from Asia and nurturing up-and-coming young filmmakers. A festival is being held. It is one of the largest international short film festivals in Asia, attracting over 10,000 films from all over the world every year. In addition, as an initiative connected to the International Short Film Festival, we held a ``Book Short'' program in which we solicited and created short stories from the public and turned them into short films. In addition to the Book Short Award, which has been held every year since 2014, we collaborate with various companies and local governments to conduct ``public recruitment'' on a variety of themes.