Cambodia grabs top two spots at first Tropfest SEA

GEORGE TOWN, Jan 26 — Cambodian film-makers grabbed the top two spots of the inaugural Tropfest South East Asia while a Malaysia-based film-maker took the third prize after a “live” screening and judging of 12 finalists at Esplanade last night.

First-time film-maker Sothea Ines took the top prize with her powerful take of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge which was titled simply Rice.

Ines walked away with US$10,000 (RM31,679) in cash from Tropfest SEA plus a trip to Los Angeles to participate in a five-day film immersion course sponsored by Motion Picture Association (MPA).

After receiving her trophy on stage, Ines said, “Am I dreaming? Please tell me I’m not dreaming,”

Later, the exhilarated 24-year-old said she did not even expect her film to make it to the top three.

“I can’t believe this, this is my first venture into film-making. When we were watching all the finalists’ films, I was thinking those films are really good compared to mine so I kept telling myself that I would not be winning anything tonight,” she said in an interview after the event.

Her short film is of five little boys, separated from their families, who had to serve in Angkar by working in the rice fields and how they tried to get more food by picking up rice from the ground. They are later caught and punished.

The black and white film runs the full seven minutes, the maximum length allowed by Tropfest SEA, and does not have any dialogue except for accompanying music and subtitles.

“This story is based on true events that happened during that period when hunger and starvation were very real for many people then,” Ines said.

After this, the script writer plans to utilise her prize money to expand her short film into a full feature film.

“I already had the idea for a full feature film based on this same story but I took out a small section of it to make a short film for Tropfest SEA,” she said.

First runner-up Polen Ly from Cambodia, who won with his entry titled Duetto, will get an all-expense paid trip to Sydney, Australia.

The second runner-up, Ezequiel Paolinelli, an Argentinian based in Malaysia, won an all-expense paid trip to Abu Dhabi, UAE with his entry The Last Flight.

A few thousand people turned up for the free screening of the 12 Tropfest SEA finalists’ short films.

Managing director Joe Sidek was happy with the turnout especially since this was this first Tropfest SEA.

“I hope that we will be able to get more sponsors for next year’s Tropfest SEA to keep it here in Penang,” he said.

Tropfest which started in Sydney, Australia 20 years ago is the world’s biggest short film festival.

This is the first time that Tropfest is held in the South-East Asia region, opening up a platform for South-East Asian film-makers to showcase their talent.

Joe also announced next year’s Tropfest SEA theme “The Wheel.” Film-makers have to put that theme into their entries for next years’ event.

This year’s signature item was “rice” which saw different interpretations by the 12 finalists.

There is also an Audience Choice Award for the online audience to pick their favourite short film out of the 12 finalists at viddsee.com.

Viddsee has partnered with Tropfest SEA to conduct the online award and all viewers need to do is to watch these films on the site and click like for the ones they want to vote.

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