Water Sports

Whammy Alcazaren | 2025 | Digital | Colour | Filipino (with English subtitles) | 20 min.

Amid an apocalyptic climate change event, high school sweethearts Jelson and Ipe navigate the end of days. They endure rigorous physical and mental trials designed to forge an unbreakable iron will. But as the world fractures, the deeply-in-love duo quickly discover that the truest way to endure a crisis is to simply live, laugh, and love with fierce, fearless freedom.

Bleat!

Ananth Subramaniam | 2025 | Black & White and Colour | Tamil (with English subtitles) | 15 min

An elderly, traditional Malaysian-Tamil couple’s faith is put to the test when they discover the male goat they intend to sacrifice to the gods is miraculously pregnant. Thrown into a spiritual and logistical crisis, they must decide the animal’s fate.

New Land Broken Road

Kavich Neang | 2018 | Digital | Colour | Khmer (with English subtitles) | 15 min.

On a deserted, broken road in late-night Phnom Penh, three young hip-hop dancers on a motorbike pull over. While Nick scours the dark for an iPhone rumoured to be lost in the area, the other two encounter a local street vendor and trade words about their fleeting hopes and doubts about the future—while one of them spontaneously breaks out his best Michael Jackson dance moves.

Chirp Chirp

Wenting Song | 2026 | Digital | Black & White | Khmer (with Chinese and English subtitles) | 7 min.

Amid the heavy, suffocating heat of summer, two girls drift through the streets of their hometown. As they share quiet, intimate pockets of the city, the humid and heavy air begins to kindle a restless, unspoken feeling, drawing them closer to the verge of a relationship they cannot yet name.

Ali

Adnan Al Rajeev | 2025 | Digital | Colour | Bengali (with English subtitles) | 15 min.

Set in a community where a woman’s voice must never be heard in song, a teenager joins a singing competition in hopes of winning a new life in the city. To compete, he is forced to obscure his true nature in a deeply unsettling way. But as he takes the stage, this life-altering performance becomes a shield, beautifully concealing a profound and forbidden secret that could change everything.

Annisa

Reza Rahadian, Sam Manacsa | 2026 | Digital | Colour | Indonesian (with English subtitles) | 14 min.

Inside a busy community housing complex, Annisa, a blind teenager, experiences life through a dense tapestry of sound. As the neighbourhood becomes abuzz with National Day celebrations, she discovers an unexpected way to be heard.

Mothers are Mothering

Khozy Rizal, Lam Li Shuen | 2026 | Digital | Colour | Indonesian (with English subtitles) | 17 min.

Trapped in an abusive marriage, 50-year-old Nia retreats into a private consciousness of suppressed desires and haunted memories. When an old flame unexpectedly returns, a fleeting glimpse of hope is quickly swallowed by the entrenched violence holding her captive, blurring her reality into a desperate, final escape.

Whammy Alcazaren is an award-winning director and production designer who graduated from the University of the Philippines Film Institute. Over the years, his talent has been recognised by prestigious international platforms, including the Fantasia Film Festival (2023), New York Film Festival (2023), Sundance Film Festival (2023), and Berlinale Talents (2024).

Ananth Subramaniam is a Malaysian filmmaker and screenwriter whose evocative storytelling has quickly gained international attention. He made cinematic history with his short film Bleat! (2025), which became the first-ever Malaysian short film to be selected for the prestigious Critics' Week (La Semaine de la Critique) section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Film director Kavich Neang began his career under the mentorship of master documentarian Rithy Panh. Now a key figure in Cambodia’s independent film revival, Neang directed the short film New Land Broken Road (2018), which premiered as part of a prominent Southeast Asian omnibus. This breakthrough paved the way for his acclaimed feature documentaries and fiction works, including Last Night I Saw You Smiling (2019) and White Building (2021), the latter of which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Song Wenting is a film critic, writer, and director recognised for her avant-garde sensibilities that challenge traditional cinematic narratives. Having begun her career as a critic deeply engaged in the analysis and practice of acting, Song transitioned to writing and directing in 2020. Her works deliberately eschews conventional dialogue and props, conventional dialogue and props, she treats the human body as an expressive vessel, using abstract physical movement and corporeal language to explore the poetic boundaries of performance and presence.

A rising force in Bangladeshi cinema, Adnan Al Rajeev made his directorial debut in 2008, quickly establishing himself through television fiction and commercials for the local industry. He served as the Executive Producer for RADIKALS (2024), a Filipino short film directed by Arvin Belarmino. As the first-ever co-production between Bangladesh and the Philippines, the film made its world premiere at the 63rd Critics' Week (La Semaine de la Critique) at the Cannes Film Festival, marking Rajeev’s breakthrough onto the international film scene. His latest short film, Ali, has won the Special Mention award in the Cannes 2025 Short Films Competition.

Manila-born filmmaker and production designer Sam Manacsa debuted internationally with her graduation film, If People Such as We Cease to Exist, at the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. Her sophomore short, Cross My Heart and Hope to Die, made its world premiere in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, and has since won several Grand Prizes at Academy Award-qualifying festivals, including PÖFF Shorts and the Regard–Saguenay International Short Film Festival.

A dynamic powerhouse of contemporary Indonesian cinema, Reza Rahadian (b. 1987) is a celebrated multi-hyphenate whose exceptional career spans acting, directing, music, and modelling. Of Persian and Ambonese descent, his influence extends far beyond his prolific on-screen performances; he is also a pivotal institutional leader within the region's film community, notably serving as the Chair of the Indonesian Film Festival from 2021 to 2023.

Khozy Rizal (b. 1995, Indonesia) is a filmmaker and alumnus of the Asian Film Academy and the Locarno Filmmakers Academy. His multiple award-winning short Basri & Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy (2023) was the first Indonesian short film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest short, Little Rebels Cinema Club (2025), won the Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film, Generation Kplus at the Berlinale.

Born in 1996, Lam Li Shuen is an interdisciplinary filmmaker and artist whose practice fluidly spans traditional film, expanded cinema performances, and installations. Lam’s distinct moving-image works have been showcased globally including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the BFI London Film Festival, the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and New Directors/New Films. Her directorial talent was spotlighted at the 2021 Singapore International Film Festival, where she was named Best Southeast Asian Director for her short A Man Trembles. That same year, the short film The Cup clinched the First Prize (Moving Images) at the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize.