We’re certainly happy to be invited to this year’s SeaShorts Film Festival, as it allowed us to explore films from the Southeast Asian region.
As concluded on Thursday, closing nine days’ worth of masterclasses, workshops, and film screenings that celebrated Southeast Asian filmmakers and cinema.
Earning the festival’s main honor, Bình directed by Ostin Fam was chosen by the Competition Jury to
receive the SeaShorts Award out of the 20 nominees from 8 different countries throughout the Southeast
Asian region. The film depicts an alien arriving on Earth seeking assistance to rebuild his home. Arriving
at a Vietnamese construction site for the biggest temple in the world, he meets several individuals
exchanging their different ideas of home.
As the SeaShorts Award winner, Ostin Fam and his team will be receiving 10,000 MYR sponsored by Da
Huang Pictures, an Aputure 120D II Light and Light Dome II sponsored by Aputure, a Zoom H8 Recorder
sponsored by CK Music and Zoom, and a S-MIC 2 Shotgun Microphone sponsored by Deity
Microphones.
Please… See Us directed by Chaweng Chaiyawan was also given a Special Mention. While not an
award, the film’s Special Mention acknowledges the urgent and important message it brings to light
about the displacement of ethnic minorities in Thailand. The film follows a Lahu couple who have
struggled to improve the opportunities in their lives, but are caught in the grip of powerful forces around
them.
The 2021 Jury consisted of producer and film festival programmer Raymond Phathanavirangoon
(Thailand), producer Meiske Taurisia (Indonesia), director Phan Dang Di (Vietnam), playwright and poet
Alfian Sa’at (Singapore), and artist and illustrator Sonny Liew (Malaysia/Singapore). Raymond
Phathanavirangoon served as the Head of Jury, bringing years of experience to the table.
This year’s versatile film selections saw works by Southeast Asian filmmakers from all over the region,
with stories ranging from slice-of-life narratives to commentaries on political and societal issues.
Jury Member Phan Dang Di shares that SeaShorts has provided him a great connection to short films,
allowing him to explore and discover Southeast Asian countries through this short form medium. He
explains “ I totally felt what happened in each country. Many films showed a diversity of modern, liberal,
cinematic language.”
“Watching these films managed to cure a certain wanderlust in me. I found myself transported to various
countries in Southeast Asia, but not just geographically. I felt myself transported into the various
mindscapes of filmmakers. What was wonderful for me was not all the films were social realist ones,
there were some very lyrical ones, some how you would describe poetic cinema. There were a lot of
unforgettable images in those films,” adds fellow Jury Member Alfian Sa’at.
While the festival has tried its best to find its footing with the online setting for a second time, Festival
Director Tan Chui Mui hopes to return to in-person runs of SeaShorts in the near future.
“For the next edition, we would like to go back to a physical festival, where we can watch films on a big
screen together, in the same room. We need the communal experience of discussion between
screenings, having discourse about film, and celebrating Southeast Asian cinema together. If physical
events are not allowed in Malaysia by next year August, hopefully we can hold it in other Southeast
Asian countries,” said Tan.
This year’s festival wouldn’t have been possible without the support of The Japan Foundation, Kuala
Lumpur (JFKL), Da Huang Pictures, Sinema, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, Ministry of
Culture of Taiwan (Republic of China), Yayasan Sime Darby, Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur and
Embassy of France in Malaysia.
About the Highlighted Films
SeaShorts Award | Bình by Ostin Fam (Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea)
Jury Remarks: Bình is a playful exploration of human oddities through the eyes of an “alien”. Part
sci-fi, part anthropology, it defamiliarises many of the Asian customs and objects we take for
granted—religious offerings, spirit possession, a temple in the middle of nowhere—and serves them
up as curios from a bizarre planet. Its cheekiness aside, the film also offers a critique of Vietnamese
society in transition, with its otherworldly combination of capitalism and spirituality. The final image
is unforgettable—of a human figure in a truck suspended from the mast of a bigger lorry, receding
into the distance, like an Unidentified Terrestrial Object.
Special Mention | Please… See Us directed by Chaweng Chaiyawan (Thailand)
Jury Remarks: An allusive and affecting depiction of the anonymity and casualness of violent
means of oppression, Please… See Us suggests that the seeming impossibility of resistance
against the brutalities of power may arise in part from our own willingness and desire to look away.
About SeaShorts Film Festival
The SeaShorts Film Festival is an annual celebration of Southeast Asian short film, comprising
screenings, forums, workshops, exhibitions, and other creative endeavours from guests across the
region. Founded by award-winning filmmaker Tan Chui Mui in 2017, it has grown into a permanent fixture
on the calendars of cinema professionals and enthusiasts alike.
Since its inaugural edition, SeaShorts has showcased more than 420 short films and travelled to three
different cities in Malaysia. Among the names that have been members of the competition jury include
Lav Diaz (Philippines), Rithy Panh (Cambodia), Philip Cheah (Singapore), Pimpaka Towira (Thailand), Mira
Lesmana (Indonesia), and Sharifah Amani (Malaysia).
The Festival is the annual marquee event of the SeaShorts Film Society, officially registered in Malaysia
in 2019. seashorts.org | fb.com/seashortsmy
