Call for Entry 2020: Southeast Asian Film Lab
The Southeast Asian Film Lab provides a nurturing and collaborative space for Southeast Asian filmmakers who are embarking on their first feature-length film project. Over the course of seven days, filmmakers will receive personal feedback from the three mentors, and hear from established industry guests as they share their experiences and insights. The programme will end with the filmmakers pitching to a panel of industry experts for the Most Promising Project Prize that will be awarded at the Silver Screen Awards.
Projects that have emerged from the Southeast Asian Film Lab have gone on to thrive in other prestigious workshops and markets such as the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market, Cannes L’Atelier, Locarno Open Doors, SEAFIC and TorinoFilmLab.
2020 Head Mentor: Shozo Ichiyama (Japan)
Shozo Ichiyama has produced films by Asian filmmakers, including Jia Zhang-ke (“Platform”, “Unknown Pleasures”, “A Touch of Sin”, “Mountains May Depart”, “Ash is Purest White”), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (“Good Men, Good Women”, “Goodbye South, Goodbye”, “Flowers of Shanghai”), Samira Makhmalbaf (“Blackboards”) and many more that competed in major international film festivals. Apart from producing, he is the founder and director of film festival, Tokyo Filmex. His recent filmography include “The Horse Thieves, Roads of Time” by Yerlan Nurmkhambetov and Lisa Takeba, which was shown as the opening film in Busan International Film Festival 2019, and “The Calming” by Song Fang, which took home the CICAE Prize at Berlinale Forum 2020.
2020 Mentor: Mai Meksawan (Thailand)
Mai Meksawan was a former Bangkok International Film Festival programmer and co-founder of Thai production and distribution company Extra Virgin, whose most successful title, Agrarian Utopia (dir. Uruphong Raksasad) screened in more than 100 film festivals worldwide and received 11 international awards. He founded Diversion in 2014, where the company’s first film Vanishing Point (dir. Jakrawal Nilthamrong), won the Tiger Award at 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam. As producer, his most recent films include Manta Ray (dir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng), winner of Orizzonti Award for Best Film at 2018 Venice Film Festival, and upcoming project Uruphong Raksasad’s WORSHIP (with support from MPA APSA Academy Film Fund and Tan Ean Kiam Foundation – SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary (SEADOC) Grant).
2020 Mentor: Nandita Solomon (Malaysia)
Nandita Solomon is the co-founder of Malaysian independent film production company Apparat, with director Dain Said. Apparat’s first fiction feature, ‘Bunohan’ (2011) was Malaysia’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar 2013, the second film to ever be submitted by Malaysia. Nandita has participated in international programs including EAVE Ties That Bind and Crossing Borders, and has presented projects at Hong Kong’s HAF, Focus Asia Genre Market in Udine, Bucheon NAFF IT Project Market, Singapore’s SAFF and Docedge Calcutta. In 2019, Nandita taught Producing for Film at Sunway University. She also serves as an Industry Advisor to the Malaysia Multimedia University’s Faculty of Cinematic Arts. Nandita is currently co-writing two horror feature scripts in 2020, while taking on the mantle of director for the first time, with her documentary “And Their Gods Rode Hornbills”.
Previous Film Lab Head Mentors include Terence Chang (Hong Kong, USA), Anurag Kashyap (India), Philip Lee (Hong Kong, USA), Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (Thailand), and Michel Reilhac (France).The Film Lab does not charge entry fees, submissions should reach us no later than 24 August 2020, 6pm (GMT+8). If you have any enquiries please write in to programme@sgiff.com.