Not one, but two National Youth Film Award winners from Singapore, will be flying the flag proudly at Cannes this year. Cannes is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world and we couldn’t be happier for the two.
Shoki Lin, a NYFA 2017 Best Picture winner, got into the Cinefondation at Cannes, and Jerrold Chong, a NYFA 2018 (open youth) Best Animation winner, qualified at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Jerrold Chong also got selected for the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, one of the most acclaimed animation film festivals in the industry. It will compete under the Annecy’s Short Films Perspectives section, where the film will be eligible for the Jury Award and the Le Cristal d’Annecy (Best Short Film), both of which are Oscar-qualifying awards!
Shoki Lin’s short film ‘ADAM’, tells the tale of a young boy with a turbulent family life trying to find his place in the world. It is the first film from NTU School of Art, Design & Media (ADM) to ever compete in Cannes Cinefondation.
Jerrold Chong’s animated short film, ‘Piece Of Meat’, which got into Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight is a cutout stop-motion animation featuring anthropomorphised objects representing Singaporeans, with its story centered around a lamb cutlet trying to make ends meet. The film was co-directed local filmmaker, Huang Junxiang and was written by veteran Singapore auteur Eric Khoo. It is one of the 10 short films vying for the S$3,800 ILLY prize.
According to Directors’ Fortnight, artistic director Paolo Moretti says, “it is to establish new directors and new types of film in Cannes” and “to showcase brilliant and visionary works”.
When asked about Jerrold Chong, Huang Junxiang said, “it’s great that it was such a smooth collaboration between Jerrold & myself. We’re glad that the cutout animation style worked well for the story, highlighting our present-day relationship with materialism and images. Eric Khoo added “I’m just so happy that a heartfelt idea I had close to 30 years ago has finally been realised in the good hands of Jerrold and Junxiang. They have crafted an amazing short that I’m extremely proud of. It’s wonderful to be back in Cannes!”