Singapore Youth Film Festival 2024
Singapore Youth Film Festival (SYFF) features a two week-long festival of screenings, conference, award ceremony, and celebrations, spotlighting filmmakers who have journeyed with *SCAPE through mentorships and incubations.
Explore the Nominees and Winners of SYFF'24
FILM FACILITATION MENTORSHIP: OPEN CALL
The Film Facilitation Programme (FFP) is an initiative to develop young local filmmakers, build a connected community, and provide industry mentorship.
Mentorship, funding, guidance—apply now!
YOUTH INSPIRATION AWARD
Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen are a filmmaker and artist duo from Singapore. They met through forming an art rock group and started out making lo-fi underground films as self-taught filmmakers. Over the years of their partnership, they have carved out a cinema of speculative fiction and body horror, exploring existential anxiety, histories and alienation.
Their films have screened at international film festivals including the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2024, 2023), New Directors/New Films (2023) and BFI London Film Festival (2021). In 2021, with their short film A Man Trembles, they were awarded Best Southeast Asian Director at the Singapore International Film Festival. Their feature film project in development, The Want, was selected for Berlinale Talents Script Station 2024.
Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen
Open Youth Category
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Student Category
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Joint Awards
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Selection Committee
Mysara Aljaru
Selection Committee (Student Category)
Mysara Aljaru is a creative and writer. Previously a journalist and documentary producer, her works look into state-constructed narratives that cut across race, gender, class and sexuality. She has showcased and performed at Objectifs, The Substation, ArtScience Museum and Singapore Art Week. Mysara is also the co-editor of Brown Is Redacted, an anthology looking into minority experiences in Singapore.
Jonathan Chan
Selection Committee (Student Category)
Jonathan Chan is a writer and editor of poetry and essays. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022), which was named to SUSPECT’s ‘My Book of the Year 2022’ list. His writing on film has appeared in Stories Journal, Film Criticism, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. More of his writing can be found at jonbcy.wordpress.com.
Gabriel Goh
Selection Committee (Student Category)
Gabriel Goh is the Programme Executive at the Singapore International Film Festival. Along with Sam I-shan, he has overseen the development of the Undercurrent section at the festival since 2021, which brings in bold contemporary artist films from around the world. His programming ethos builds on his ongoing research interests in the concepts of time and idleness in Southeast Asian cinema. Outside work, he enjoys tinkering with Super8 films and documenting tifos at lower-league football matches.
Alexander Lee
Selection Committee (Student Category)
Alexander Lee is a film programmer and filmmaker. His interest lies in the region's socio-politics of land and space and how it manifests in cinema. He was the programme manager at the Mental Health Film Festival Singapore (2022-24) and has participated in the critics lab at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF) and the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). As a filmmaker, he has lensed multiple shorts and collaborated with filmmakers on narrative projects.
G. Nanthinee Shree
Selection Committee (Student Category)
G. Nanthinee Shree is a branding and marketing executive specialising in local narratives and digital content. A recipient of the SG Digital Scholarship from the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, she is passionate about cinema, having led the Perspectives Film Festival as Festival Director and also participated in the Singapore International Film Festival’s Youth Critics & Jury Programme in 2021. Nanthinee writes for local publications and holds a Bachelors in Communication Studies from Nanyang Technological University.
Priyanka Nair
Selection Committee (Student Category)
Priyanka Nair has dabbled in various roles in the film space for almost 10 years—from marketing for film festivals, to building communities of cinephiles, to editing film reviews and analyses. She is currently Head of Marketing, Community and Business Development at the Singapore Film Society, where she works closely with festival programmers in public outreach and engagement efforts, and with volunteer writers and content creators who are experimenting with their voices. She has a personal mission of connecting more people together through the love of film.
Selection Committee
Vess Chua
Selection Committee (Open Youth Category)
Vess Chua is a film programmer and producer based in Singapore. With a focus on Southeast Asian short films, she is currently the Programme Executive at the Singapore International Film Festival. She is also the Festival Manager of the Singapore Youth Film Festival. Previously, she also contributed to the Perspectives Film Festival, first as a Programmer in 2018, then as the Festival Director in 2019.
Viknesh Kobinathan
Selection Committee (Open Youth Category)
Viknesh Kobinathan (he/they) is a cultural worker based in Singapore. Their practice is a constantly evolving exploration into the communal gathering around sound and image as an act of care, healing, rest and resistance. They run This Where Film Club and are a resident DJ at Intervention.
Lai Junjie
Selection Committee (Open Youth Category)
Lai Junjie is the Manager of Content and Production at Infinite Studios where he oversees projects across Singapore and the region. Previously, he was a development executive at HBO Asia for 5 years where he worked on award-winning original productions including TRAFFICKERS: INSIDE THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE and the anthology series INVISIBLE STORIES, FOLKLORE and FOOD LORE. He was also at mm2 Entertainment for 7 years where his diverse experience spanned development, production, marketing, and distribution.
Sim Jiaying
Selection Committee (Open Youth Category)
Sim Jiaying (沈佳颖) is the founder of Singapore Film Database (http://sgfilmdb.com), a comprehensive digital resource on Singapore's film ecosystem. She holds a PhD in Film and Television Studies from the University of Glasgow with her research focusing on Asian cinema and the intersection of film, culture, and gender. Jiaying also teaches critical thinking, gender studies, and media literacy and produces content for film and mixed media projects. She has published in international journals including Film-Philosophy and film anthologies by the University of Edinburgh Press and Routledge.
Jury
Dr. Yanyun Chen
Jury (Student Category)
Dr. Yanyun Chen is an artist and professor whose practice explores aesthetic, cultural, and technological anatomies, unravelling notions of embodiment and inheritances. A recipient of the NAC Young Artist Award (2020) and ArtOutreach IMPART Visual Artist Award (2019), her works were awarded the Prague International Indie Film Festival Q3 Best Animation Award (2020), NYFA Best Art Direction Award (2019), and Singapore Art Museum President’s Young Talents People’s Choice Award (2018). Chen holds a PhD and MA in Communications from the European Graduate School and a BFA from NTU.
Sharda Harrison
Jury (Student Category)
Sharda Harrison is an actor, theatremaker, arts educator, and television presenter. She is well-known in Singapore for co-hosting TALKING POINT for Channel News Asia and playing Rose Ortega in the MediaCorp drama SUNNY SIDE UP. Sharda also won the 2024 Straits Times Life! Theatre Award for Best Actress. A graduate of the MA in Arts Pedagogy and Practice from LASALLE College of the Arts, Sharda is also an Adjunct Lecturer with NAFA, LASALLE, and Pangdemonium Education & Outreach, lecturing in Acting and Movement and Devised Theatre.
Jow Zhi Wei
Jury (Student Category)
Jow Zhi Wei attended Le Fresnoy (France) and LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore), and is an alumnus of the Golden Horse Film Academy in 2010. A recipient of the NAC Young Artist Award in 2014, his short films have screened at prestigious film festivals— OUTING (San Sebastián International Film Festival 2010), WAITING (Busan International Film Festival 2010) and AFTER THE WINTER (Cannes Film Festival - Cinéfondation Selection 2013). His debut feature film TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME world premiered at the 2023 Berlinale, in the Generation 14plus competition.
Sharon Loh
Jury (Student Category)
Sharon Loh is a cinematographer with a diverse portfolio spanning short films, reality shows, promo trailers, dramas and feature films. Educated in film and media studies at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, she later went to film school in Barcelona to focus on Cinematography. Her short film A FAMILY PORTRAIT shot on 35mm has won multiple awards and was selected for Camerimage. Feature film credits include SEVEN DAYS, INVISIBLE CHILDREN, and SANDCASTLE. Since 2015, Sharon has been the Director of Photography for Channel 5's long-form dramas TANGLIN, KIN, and SUNNY SIDE UP.
Vikneshwaran Silva
Jury (Student Category)
Vikneshwaran Silva is a Singaporean director with a passion for compelling storytelling. His short films include award-winning THE PUPPETEER filmed in Budapest, Hungary; ALTAR which won Best Director at the National Youth Film Awards 2022; and DARK LIGHT which won swept awards for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor at the same festival in 2021. Vikneshwaran has a Bachelors in Digital Filmmaking from SAE Institute and a Masters in Directing from the MET Film School in London.
Jury
Jerrold Chong
Jury (Open Youth Category)
Jerrold Chong is an animation filmmaker and director. A CalArts graduate, his films have screened at international festivals like Cannes, Busan, and Annecy. He is also a two-time winner of the National Youth Film Awards Best Animation Award for WHAT HAS TO BE and AUTOMATONOMY. Jerrold is co-founder of independent animation studio Finding Pictures, and serves as Programme Director for local independent animation festival Cartoons Underground. In 2022, he was awarded the NYFA Youth Inspiration Award and the NAC Young Artist Award.
Panuksmi Hardjowirogo
Jury (Open Youth Category)
Co-founder of M’GO FILMS, Panuksmi Hardjowirogo produces fiction, documentary and multimedia installations. Her focus is on collaborations with international partners; stories that are intricately linked to the shared histories of Southeast Asia. Believing that cultural diversity is significant and inherently complex has led her to (co)produce projects with like-minded partners. Born in Jakarta, Panuksmi spent her formative years in New York City until moving to Montreal to pursue her university studies and begin her trajectory as a producer. She lives and works in Singapore.
Shyan Tan
Jury (Open Youth Category)
Shyan Tan is a cinematographer whose deep passion lies in crafting narratives through his lens. Graduating with a BFA (Honours) in Digital Filmmaking from Nanyang Technological University, Shyan is also an alumnus of the Asian Film Academy in 2014 and the Golden Horse Academy in 2017. His work on STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE earned a spot at Locarno Film Festival’s Pardi di domani, Uppsala Short Film Festival and AFI Fest, while AN ISLAND DRIFTS garnered accolades at USC First Look and Urbanworld Film Festival. Shyan was awarded the Young Artist Award in 2023.
weish
Jury (Open Youth Category)
weish is an artist whose practice spans composition, performance, music directing, dramatic writing and sound design. She forms part of electronic duo .gif, prog band sub:shaman, audiovisual collective Syndicate, and experimental ensemble RATA Orkestra. She is also an associate artist at Checkpoint Theatre and a radio DJ at Mediacorp Indiego. Her compositions have taken her from Sundance to the Golden Melody Awards, making the Oscars shortlist for Best Music in SHIRKERS. In 2024, weish wrote and music-directed the critically acclaimed musical Secondary, and toured Europe with grindcore stalwarts Wormrot.
Nicole Midori Woodford
Jury (Open Youth Category)
Nicole Midori Woodford is a film director and writer. Her debut feature film LAST SHADOW AT FIRST LIGHT, made its world premiere at San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2023. It was nominated for multiple awards at Asian Film Awards, Asia Pacific Screen Awards and won four awards at Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival including the Jury Prize. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Asian Film Academy, Torino Film Lab and Talents Tokyo. Nicole was a recipient of the NAC Young Artist Award in 2020 for her achievements in filmmaking.