Russell Morton is a Singaporean filmmaker whose work blends Southeast Asian folklore and ritual with existential themes. His short films—The Forest of Copper Columns (2016), Fish (2019), and Saudade (2020)—have screened at festivals including Fantasia, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Raindance, MOTEL/X, SGIFF, and Jogja-NETPAC. He received the Most Outstanding SEA Director award at the Rolling Youth Film Festival in conjunction with the Busan International Film Festival in 2022.
As a cinematographer, Morton has collaborated on Ang Song Ming’s Recorder Rewrite, Singapore’s entry to the 58th Venice Biennale; Kenneth Dagatan’s In My Mother’s Skin (Sundance Film Festival, 2023); Jow Zhi Wei’s Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Berlinale, 2023); and Petersen Vargas’s Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (Tallinn Black Nights, 2024). He is currently developing his first feature film, Penumbra, which won the Autumn Meeting Arthouse Project prize in 2022.