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Student Short Film Project on Mother-son Relationship Wins Top Honour at 3rd National Youth Film Awards.

By Flora / 22 Jul 2017 (Saturday)

Shoki Lin, accepting his award for 'Best Picture'
Photo courtesy of: National Youth Film Awards 2017

The third edition of the National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) saw a new batch of aspiring youth filmmakers and technical professionals walking away with prizes and recognition for their short films.

NYFA 2017 saw over 200 submissions that were assessed by a 20-member jury panel consisting of industry stalwarts from a diverse background. A total of 23 creative and technical awards were presented this afternoon, where three additional awards were handed out under the newly-introduced non-media student category which recognises short films presented by non-media trained students.

‘Changi’ by Shoki Lin Junxiang bagged the highest honour - the Best Picture Award - receiving a trophy and $2000 cash, an URSA Mini Pro, and a one-year complimentary subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud. His team also walked away with the ‘Best Performance’ Award to Carey Ou who played the mother to her real-life son in the 9-minute film.

“It’s really unexpected, but at the same time, I’m very grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me. It’s very humbling because there are a lot of great films in this competition as well,” said Lin, who was inspired by his own life story when he was younger.

Film still from Changi

“My mother had to return to Japan when I was around 14 years old to take care of my grandparents. At that time, I was dealing with all these emotions as I didn’t want her to leave. Now as an adult, I was thinking of stories to come up with for this project, and we talked about how painful it was for her to leave the country and leave the family behind, so I wanted to write something about the transnational families,” recounted the third year student at Nanyang Technological University.

Other awardees include the team from Paper Roof and BUANG BAYI – Behind the Baby Hatch, each clinching three awards under their belts. Paper Roof, which explored the breaking down of the family unit in today’s society through the eyes of two young sisters, bagged accolades for Best Camera Work, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

Film still from BUANG BAYI - Behind the Baby Hatch

The team from BUANG BAYI - Behind the Baby Hatch swept the entire documentary category for their outstanding work documenting the plight of abandoned babies in Malaysia. The team walked away with three awards - the Fujinon Best Documentary Film Award, the Best Camera Work in Documentary Film Award and the Best Editing in Documentary Film Award.

National Youth Film Awards NYFA 2017

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Student Short Film Project on Mother-son Relationship Wins Top Honour at 3rd National Youth Film Awards.