Besides having one of the best promotional images of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Nagahisa Makoto’s And so we put goldfish in the pool also had a strong enough story and vision to take home the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.

Nagahisa’s script was selected as the inaugural project to be produced by the Moon Cinema Project (Japanese only), a talent development and production support initiative established by the Inoue [Umetsugu] / Tsukioka [Yumeji] Foundation headed by their daughter Inoue Amy.

Based on an actual incident which took place in 2012 at a Saitama Prefecture junior high school in which 400 goldfish were released in the school’s pool by four female students, Nagahisa’s movie attempts to explore the feelings and motives of the four girls. It can be said the movie’s visually striking style and expectation defying storytelling are what set it apart from other fare at Sundance (certainly not an easy feat).

The short is available online through its distributor, Koto Production’s Vimeo. Watch it right now here.