Singapore, Laos score high at SEAFIC
The project “Ajoomma” by director He Shuming and producer Tan Si En from Singapore has won this year’s top award from the Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC), the pioneering script and development lab for Southeast Asian filmmakers.
The project also earned a cash prize of US$15,000.
Another project from Singapore “Ah Girl” by director Ang Geck Geck and producer Fran Borgia picked up the Open SEA Fund Award, which gives one Seafic project credit towards equipment rental from VS Service worth $10,000 and post-production services provided by White Light Post worth $15,000.
“Raising a Beast” from Laos and its co-producer Steve Arounsack were
recognised with the Seafic -TFL Award, for which Matthieu Darras, artistic director of TorinoFilmLab, chooses one producer from Seafic to attend this year’s TorinoFilmLab Meeting Event (November 23-24), with flight and accommodation covered.
The prizes come after eight months of intense script and project development for the five selected projects under the guidance of international experts.
In addition to the existing partnership with Produire au Sud and TorinoFilmLab, this year Seafic also announces a new partnership with Link of Cine-Asia, organised by the Busan Film Commission and Asian Film Commissions Network. Held in parallel with last month’s Busan International Film Festival, Link of Cine-Asia sponsored the five Seafic producers from this year to travel to Busan and pitch at their forum.
The five projects selected for Seafic’s second lab year concludes the curriculum at the Seafic Open House three-day event held earlier this month at Alliance Francaise Bangkok and Goethe-Institut. Aside from the winners, the other two projects are Thailand’s “Arnold is a Model Student” by director Sorayos Prapapan and Indonesia’s “Crocodile Tears” by Tumpal Tampubolon.
Sorayos’s project received the Hubert Bals Script Development Fund and previously attended Ties That Bind, Produire au Sud and Tokyo Talents labs. His short “Death of A Sound Man” premiered at the Venice Orizzonti competition.
These awards were unveiled after a live final pitching session by the Seafic filmmakers in front of a distinguished international jury that included Killer Films’ Christine Vachon, the producer of “Carol”, and the director of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) Jacob Wong.
