After 4 months of intense online voting and numerous rounds of judging, the search for Singapore’s most promising youth filmmaker concluded on Oct 18, with the locally-flavoured short film, You Singaporean?, coming out tops. The short film beat 5 other finalists to be crowned the winner of the first YourFilm.SG Short Film Competition.
Low Ting Yi, part of the trio who won the top prize of $1,000 cash and a winners’ plaque, shared with UrbanWire his thoughts on winning, “We are really happy to win the competition even though the films made by the other teams were equally entertaining.”

You Singaporean? describes a typical day in the life of a working professional, Terry, a typical Singaporean. Displaying acts of “Kiasu-ism” (a Hokkien word meaning the fear of losing) and speaking “Singlish” (a mix of English and mother tongues of Singaporeans), Terry shows the undesirable side of most, if not all, Singaporeans, especially in the scene where he shoves his way up the bus. Despite the familiarity of the sometimes uniquely annoying actions, like reserving a seat using a packet of tissue, the video shows us why we are Singaporeans and why we love our home. So banish the thought that the video is all negative.

Playing on the theme “Youthniquely Singapore”, these aspiring filmmakers had to interpret the meaning of Singapore’s Identity and explain that with the use of moving visuals. For one entry though, it wasn’t just a video they wanted to present but a message that the filmmakers felt should be put across. Seah Padman, who took on the role as the pirate in the short, Pirate(d) A Musical, explained, “Our take on music sharing is that it is not really stealing, but a form of networking. We felt that the issue on piracy should be addressed.”

Organised by the South West Community Development Council (CDC), the inaugural youth filmmaking competition saw a total of 34 entries from Singapore’s budding Jack Neos and Royston Tans.

Speaking of Jack Neo, guess what? The man himself was present at the awards ceremony, taking on the role of a chief judge and possibly searching for new talents to join his production company, J Team Productions. When questioned about the possibility of collaborating with the winner of the competition, the Cultural Medallion Award winner hinted, “Why not? I am constantly on the lookout for new talent and I hope to nurture these youths into future filmmakers.”

Commenting on the winning short, he added, “I really liked it. The technical side of the film is there. But most importantly, it has the ability to connect people and create a certain mood in which the viewers identify with.” The other 5 shortlisted entries were Neighbourhood by Lim Chee Harn (Nanyang Technological University, NTU), Nineteen Twenties by Elgin Ho (NTU), Pirate(d) A Musical by Shaun Koh, Singapore Bagus! by Rowell Tan (ITE College East) and Singapore Puzzle by Lam Chee Leong (Jurong Secondary School).

Besides the prolific and commercially successful filmmaker, other judges were distinguished guests, Kenneth Tan, Managing Director of Golden Village (GV) Singapore, Tony Chow, Chairman of the Digital Media Academy (DMA) and Eng Yee Peng, a freelance TV producer who has won numerous accolades, including the Best Tertiary Documentary at the Queensland New Filmmakers Award competition for her film Diminishing Memories.

Held at Golden Village VivoCity, the awards ceremony saw Mayor of South West District, Dr Amy Khor as the event’s Guest of Honour. Expressing her delight to see the involvement of youths in this competition, she said, “This competition is a good platform in raising awareness among youths about Singapore. I certainly hope to see more of such programmes in the future.”