Founded in 1999, the Short Shorts Film Festival is Asia's largest competitive festival for short film screening to audiences of 30,000 annually. The festival maintains offices in Tokyo and in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles office is managed by Pacific Voice LA and is the headquarters for the Submissions Department, where the nearly 1,500 annual entries begin their journey through the selection process, which ultimately results in the 50 international films programmed each year.

Short Shorts celebrates short film – ground zero for cinematic innovation and talent -- and short filmmakers by screening the best and most recent short films from around the world along side the short films of now famous feature filmmakers, including George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Alexander Payne, Roman Polanski, and Sofia Coppola. Cinema began with short films, and these world-renowned filmmakers are among many who began their careers making short films. As with the first motion pictures ever created, the short film medium continues to foster innovation, creativity, and expression.

Following a week long kick-off in Tokyo each June, Short Shorts tours 6 other cities in Japan and Singapore. In 2003, the festival held special screenings in Myanmar. Short Shorts is must-see event for hip, young film-lovers and of professionals in the film, television and advertising industries on the lookout for new talent and content. Each year festival organizers offer roundtrip business class airfare to 10 filmmakers from around the world to attend their films' screenings in Tokyo, earning a reputation for the festival that treats short filmmakers like rock stars.