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Winners of the 5th Singapore Short Film Awards (SSFA)!

By InCinemas / 02 Mar 2014 (Sunday)

Awards week! Here are the winners for the 5th Singapore Short Film Awards, aka SSFA!

The 5th Singapore Short Film Awards is a partner of ‘Watch Local’ – an initiative under the Singapore Film Commission. Over 100 members of the film community attended the awards ceremony, which was held on 1 March 2014 at The Substation Theatre.

Detour by Michael Kam was the most highly acclaimed film at the Awards, winning Best Fiction, Best Director, Best Script, and Best Performance. The film is about a taxi driver and his two bickering young sons. The youngest son later undergoes a traumatic experience that changes the dynamic between the two brothers forever. This is Michael’s second Best Director Award; he had previously won the same award for his film Masala Mama at the 2nd SSFA in 2011. In addition to a trophy, Michael received a post-production package valued at SGD$10,000 from Infinite Studios for winning Best Fiction Film. All award winners received a $200 cash voucher from Camera Rental Centre.

The full list of winners follows:

Best Fiction - Detour by Michael Kam
Best Director - Michael Kam for Detour
Special Mention: Dzafirul Haniff for Abang
Best Documentary - On Such and Such a Day, At Such and Such a Time
Best Cinematography - Teo Qi Yu for On Such and Such a Day, At Such and Such a Time
Best Script - Michael Kam for Detour
Special Mention: Wu Linfeng for Tightrope
Best Performance - Michael Chua, Presley Lim, and Yolby Low for Detour
Best Art Direction - Adam Choong, Kristen Ong and Thilagan Narayansamy for Every Single Night
Best Sound - Burtt See and Inch Chua for Sunshine
Best Editing - Ho Wei Joey for The Kings
Best Animation - Fly With Me
Best Experimental - The Silent Dialogue of All Artworks
Honorary Award - Shooting Gallery Asia

The judges were impressed by the diversity of the issues tackled across the nominated films, and the high technical standards they saw. In a joint statement, they commented, “It was an interesting foray into the world of young filmmakers. The winners were outstanding examples of the Singapore film scene, and we saw many strong performances that are worthy of accolade. We were surprised by the level of maturity, particularly in documentaries such as The Kings and On Such and Such a Day, At Such and Such a Time, and look forward to seeing more from these filmmakers in the future.”

In addition to the winners, the judges gave Special Mentions to director Dzafirul Haniff for Abang, in recognition for its sensitive and honest portrayal of familial relations, and to Wu Linfeng for his script for Tightrope, which featured an immigrant’s story with an unexpected twist.

Guest of Honour and Assistant Chief Executive of the Media Development Authority, Ms Angeline Poh, presented the Honorary Award to Shooting Gallery Asia for their contribution to Singapore short film awards. Shooting Gallery Asia has been a strong supporter of Singapore film, enabling filmmakers such as Sun Koh and Jeremy Chua to realise their short film projects.

The SSFA is an independent effort by two major Singapore film contributors – The Substation and Objectifs. This year’s SSFA supporters and sponsors include Infinite Studios, Viddsee, Camera Rental Centre, Veganburg and My Art Space.

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Winners of the 5th Singapore Short Film Awards (SSFA)!