The SeaShorts Film Festival was originally founded by award-winning filmmaker Tan Chui Mui
in 2017 as an event to screen Southeast Asian short films and celebrate Southeast Asia
cinema, has since grown into a notable regional film event. In its 2017 to 2019 editions, it has
been held in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Malacca, in Malaysia. Its most recent edition in 2020
was held entirely online.
The first edition of SeaShorts Film Festival was held on May 11-14, 2017 in Lostgens’
Contemporary Art Space, FINDARS gallery and Checkmates Creative in Kuala Lumpur. With a
programme of handpicked and curated short films, as well as forums and masterclasses, it
showcases Southeast Asia’s stories and emerging filmmaking talents by bringing together the
arts and cultural community from the region. It is also a platform for regional exchange and
learning, talent recognition, networking and collaboration.
A total of 34 programmes were showcased during the Festival, including screenings, panel talks
and experimental films challenges. Besides, SeaShorts Festival 2017 also highlighted some
important programmes such as S-Express 2016, SeaShorts competition, Next New Wave
competition, omnibus project “Fragment” (Asian Film Archive, Singapore), experimental films
challenges by Mr. Koto Yamashita (Japan), short films screening from Tama University by Mr.
Ken Okobu (Japan) and panel talks of curators from Southeast Asia countries such as Yuni
Hadi (Singapore), Amir Muhammad (Malaysia), Aditya Assarat (Thailand), Fransiska Prihadi
(Indonesia), Thaiddhi (Myanmar), Francis Jospeh Cruz (Philippines) and Chalida Uabumrungjit
(Thailand).
The Festival also showcased 130 short films, which includes 118 from all the Southeast Asia
countries and 11 from Japan and 1 from Syria. For the competition category, the Festival
marked a total of 265 submissions from all the Southeast Asian countries in 2017 and
cumulatively, it has received more than 1,450 film submissions and seen more than 3,700
festival admissions until now.
SeaShorts Festival 2017 also serves as a film gathering amongst all the filmmakers from
Southeast Asia. It has welcomed festival guests from all over Southeast Asia, with 50 invited
guests (25 international guests from Southeast Asian countries and 25 from Malaysia). All the
guests are the established filmmakers, curators and young filmmakers from Southeast Asian
and Japan.
With the continuous support from Japan Foundation Asia Center since 2017, it aspires to
continue promoting appreciation and understanding of different cultures of Southeast Asia
through storytelling via the medium of short films – was officially formed, with the festival as its
key annual event.
SeaShorts Official Page: https://seashorts.org/
- Related Countries
- Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei