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The National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) returns this year for its 8th edition, once again seeking to recognise the best of Singapore's young filmmakers!
NYFA was established in 2015 by *SCAPE, an organisation that supports the development of Singaporean youths, with the aspiration to showcase and celebrate youth talents in Singapore's film industry, as well as to provide a launch pad for emerging filmmakers through networking opportunities conversations and collaborations.
Now in its 8th year, NYFA 2022 returns with a spin on the numerical “8”, representing the concept of "infinity", and a reflection of *SCAPE’s never-ending pursuit to provide opportunities and open up possibilities to aspiring youth filmmakers in Singapore.
Ivy Lim, Executive Director of *SCAPE said:
Over the past seven editions of NYFA, we have successfully unearthed numerous emerging talents, many of whom have gone on to achieve greater things in their film careers.
Last year, our NYFA Film Facilitation Programme (FFP) achieved great success in helping emerging filmmakers produce their own original shorts that have since been selected at major film festivals worldwide, like Locarno, Fantasia and Toronto After Dark. These positive outcomes are a testament to our commitment and continued efforts in supporting youths in their pursuit for excellence.
As the only platform in Singapore that spotlights youth filmmakers, NYFA serves as more than just a platform to recognise up-and-coming talents in the local film scene. Over the past few editions, NYFA has strived to connect aspiring youth filmmakers to greater platforms and industry veterans to help further advance their film careers through mentorships and programmes.
In celebration of NYFA's efforts to advance the emerging film industry in Singapore, this year's key visual will also feature elements of the metaverse, designed by none other than last year's Best Animation award winner, Yeow Su Xian. She said:
This key visual is a reimagination of filmmaking in a digital format, as the art form enters an age of the metaverse influenced by NFTs and streaming. Through the visual, we want to create a film metaverse that filmmakers can relate to and step into.
New series pitch lab for young filmmakers
This year, NYFA will also be introducing a new mentorship series, dubbed Series Pitch Lab, on the fundamentals of a television series pitch bible. The programme aims to equip young filmmakers and writers with the foundation and skills to develop their writing style for episodic series pitch. As the media landscape and audience appetite continues to evolve, the markets for series content will continue to expand. *SCAPE hopes to keep pace with this growing sector, solidifying NYFA’s role in developing film craftmanship and opportunities for young filmmakers.
This will be held as a series of workshops and online guest talks for 10 selected mentees, who will be paired with two industry mentors. The workshops will be held over 6 sessions that aim to introduce the world of episodic content and teach the fundamentals of the components required to pitch a series. Regional guest speakers will be invited weekly to share about topics that are critical and relevant to the understanding of the film industry.
Interested parties for the Series Pitch Lab may apply before 13 March 2022. There will also be an online talk with the mentors of the Series Pitch Lab on 28 February 2022 for potential participants to find out more.
Giving a step up to youths
NYFA 2022 will see 24 awards being given out across two categories – "Student" and "Open Youth". Up to 60 films will be shortlisted, and qualify for award titles such as "Best Screenplay", "Best Editing", "Best Original Music", and more (refer to ANNEX A for full list of awards). Participants must be 35 years old and below to submit their Animation, Live Action or Documentary films.
This year’s winners can expect cash and attractive prizes worth an estimated total of S$70,000 including S$1,000 cash each, prizes from Mocha Chai Laboratories, SONY, Cathay Photo and more.
Submissions for the 8th NYFA will be closed by the deadline of 13 May 2022. To find out more about the submission details or to submit a film, please visit https://scape.sg/nyfa.