Best ASEAN Short Film

“Here is Not There” by Nelson Yeo

Like the immigrants it portrays, the film never loses the sense of where it is from and yet connects us all in a conversation about the plight of migrant workers across the ASEAN region. While calling forth the spirits of migrants past, director Nelson Yeo takes us through an intimate reflection of the night with his unique touch of gentle humour and sensitivity, inviting us to take a deeper look into the souls of young lovers seeking to take control of their own fates.

“The Unseen River” by Phạm Ngọc Lan

As a homage to the Mekong, the vital vein of life and history that runs through the region, the film invokes a profound sense of poetry in every frame and paces itself to the mystical rhythms rooted in the spiritual fabric of this land. Set adrift only to the uncompromising flow of director Phạm Ngọc Lan’s singular vision, it is a work that cannot be placed anywhere else but here and cannot be told by anyone else but him.

“To Calm the Pig Inside” by Joanna Vasquez Arong

Director Joanna Vasquez Arong shows us the power of storytelling to inquire and heal in crafting a nuanced contemplation of a small Filipino town struggling in the wake of natural and political disaster. Woven together by intimate accounts and the myths that people tell themselves, the film documents the strength of human will, even in the smallest of us. Given voice by one that cannot be denied, it is a generous portrait of a people determined to survive.