Singapore – ScreenSingapore, together with the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA) and Ties That Bind: Asia/Europe Producers Workshop (TTB), announced Terbalik (Malaysia) and Mamafia (Vietnam) as the top projects of the second Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market.
For Terbalik, Bea Tanaka and Yasu Tanaka (Malaysia) from 42nd Pictures walked away with the Aurora Producing Award, while Trinh Le Minh Hang (Vietnam) from Skyline Media received the Imaginex Studios Audio Post Production Award for Mamafia.
From an initial list of more than 100 submissions representing various Southeast Asian nations, a panel of international film industry experts shortlisted 15 finalists from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam, representing genres such as animation, drama, fantasy, thriller and romantic comedy. Each was matched with content financiers, distributors and co-producers, to kick-start these projects and bring them to fruition. This year, the initiative also featured a Malaysia Spotlight that focused on five projects from the country.
With the Aurora Producing Award, Terbalik will receive an investment of S$20,000 towards the production of their project from Aurora Media Holdings, one of Southeast Asia’s leading media and entertainment asset incubation, investment and management vehicles. A suspense-thriller, Terbalik tells the story of how an acclaimed Malaysian actor is found by evil, sadistic village boys after a car accident, and is subjected to torture while being forced to play a movie character. The boys shoot the movie with their cellphones, to spread it through the Internet and make it viral.
In addition, comedy-drama Mamafia won the Imaginex Studios Audio Post Production Award from Imaginex Studios and Basecamp Films. The award comprises a full audio post-production package worth S$50,000 for the feature film. In Mamafia, a powerful mafia boss who is very controlling and protective of her only son, finds out that his secret girlfriend is in fact a gangster, and also the daughter of the mafia boss’ biggest enemy.
