SeaShorts Film Festival is returning for fourth edition in 2020
2 Mar – SeaShorts Film Festival 2020 is set to be held from 25 to 30 August, marking this year as its fourth edition in Malaysia.
As the annual film festival travels to a different city for each edition, this year it will be held in Ipoh, Perak. Previous cities that have played host to it are Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Malacca.
Entries are now officially accepted as the film festival has opened its call for submission, which will close on 30 April 2020.
Submissions under all genres and forms by filmmakers from across the ASEAN region are welcomed, as long as each entry is capped at under 20 minutes. This year's entries will need to adhere to the theme "Reimagining Short Films, Reinventing Southeast Asia".
Tan Chui Mui, Festival Founder and Co-Director, said in a press statement: "SeaShorts has always been about looking at Southeast Asia-how we were in the past, what we could be in the future, and where is there room for reinvention-through the filmmaking lens. And what better way to explore that than through the possibilities of short film."
30 titles will be selected to compete for the SeaShorts Award, with the Next New Wave Award reserved exclusively for Malaysian filmmakers. The rest of the categories consist of outstanding achievement in direction, screenwriting, cinematography, editing, sound and acting.
Among the jury for this year are Malaysian historian Dr. Farish A. Noor, Singaporean sound engineer Rennie Gomes, Philippine producer Bianca Balbuena, and Cambodian-French filmmaker Davy Chou, following in the footsteps of their predecessors such as Rithy Panh (Cambodia), Philip Cheah (Singapore) and Sharifah Amani (Malaysia).
The SeaShorts Film Festival is the annual marquee event of the SeaShorts Film Society. Since its inaugural edition in 2017, it has showcased 375 short films. Last year's edition saw more than 2,000 admissions, with Indonesia's "Ballad of Blood and Two White Buckets" by Yosep Anggi Noen winning the SeaShorts Award and Malaysia's "Vinegar Baths" by Amanda Nell Eu nabbing the Next New Wave Award.
