The SGIFF Southeast Asian-Short Film (SEA-SHORTS) Grant aims to be a launchpad for the brightest, upcoming names in filmmaking from the region. This year, we are excited to support four short films each with a cash amount of S$4,000 and post-production support worth S$4,000.
Submissions for the grants in the 2021 cycle are now closed. Thank you for your interest!
READING PANEL (1 DEC 2020 to 15 FEB 2021)
Lorna Tee is a pan-Asian film producer and film festival curator/organiser, dividing her time between Asia and Europe. She has worked for Focus Films (Hong Kong), Variety (USA), Irresistible Films (Hong Kong/Japan), Berlinale, CinemAsia Film Festival and was the founder and Head of Festival Management for the International Film Festival and Awards Macao. Her selected filmography includes The Beautiful Washing Machine, Rain Dogs, Crazy Stone, Love Story, My Mother is a Bellydancer, The Shoe Fairy, At the End of Daybreak, Lover’s Discourse, Come Rain, Come Shine, Postcards from the Zoo and Mrs K. She is developing film projects in Asia with her production company Paperheart, lecturing at film training programmes and consulting with various international film institutions and film funds. She is also currently curating the year-round film screenings programme at the Cinematheque Passion in Macao.
A film programmer, Kuo Ming-Jung has spent much of her career in film festival management, programming and distribution. Her work as Programme Director for Taipei Film Festival, carried a balance of showcasing new talent as well as celebrating cinema heritage. During her time at the Taipei Film Festival, Kuo had developed new programmes such as In Progress: VR and the workshop initiative Produire au Sud Taipei which emphasised script development, co-production and marketing strategies. She also edited special issue publications, Portuguese Cinema (2015) and Twenty in An Instant (2018). Kuo has served on several juries and selection panels including for the Locarno Film Festival Open Doors, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam. She had also served as Programme Consultant (2017 – 2018) as well as Artistic Director (2019 – 2021) for the Singapore International Film Festival.
Based in Switzerland, John Canciani is the Artistic Director of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. He is a founding member of the Pro Short Swiss short film association, a film curator at the Kino Cameo Winterthur and a member of the Swiss Film Academy and the European Film Academy. He has curated various film programmes which were shown at the Cabaret Voltaire Zürich, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris and Ann Arbor Film Festival, and has been a jury member at numerous film festivals including the Glasgow Short Film Festival, Go Short Nijmegen, Hong Kong Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, International Film Festival Jeonju, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival and more. His film Tokyo Rock ‘n’ Roll (2007) was shown at film festivals such as EMAF Osnabrück, Alternative/Video Belgrad, Art le Havre Biennale d’art contemporain, Leeds IFF, VideoEX, Sao Paolo ISFF. He has also served as editor on an issue of the film journal OnCurating titled The Future of Short Film.