🎬 SUBMIT YOUR FILM: https://bit.ly/SGShorts25OpenCall

SINGAPORE SHORTS is an annual showcase organised by the Asian Film Archive that celebrates the boldness and diversity of Singapore short films. The programme will feature a broad range of new works chosen by an esteemed selection panel. There will be online discussions with the filmmakers, critical writings, as well as a special guest curated programme.

Final Submission deadline: Friday, 4 April 2025, 11:59pm

Screenings will be held at the Oldham Theatre in August 2025.

More information and submission criteria in the link above.
Any additional questions can be emailed to outreach@asianfilmarchive.org

Selection Panel

Joella Kiu
Curator, Singapore Art Museum

Joella Kiu is a curator and art historian based in Singapore. She studies how artists employ the visual, textual, counter-cartographic, speculative and mythological to communicate urgent ecological conditions and lived realities.

Currently, she is Curator at the Singapore Art Museum. Her recent curatorial projects include ‘Lost & Found: Embodied Archive’ (2024), ‘Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey’ (2024), ‘SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes’ (2023), ‘Lonely Vectors’ (2022) and ‘REFUSE’ (2022) at the Singapore Art Museum, and ‘to gather: The Architecture of Relationships’ (2021) at the Singapore Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

In terms of independent initiatives, Joella started the discursive online platform, Object Lessons Space, and was host, writer and producer of Mushroomed, a podcast about the visual arts produced in collaboration with Singapore Community Radio.

Zarina Muhammad
Artist-educator-researcher

Zarina Muhammad is an artist, educator and researcher whose practice is deeply entwined with a critical re-examination of oral histories, ethnographic literature and other historiographic accounts about Southeast Asia. Working at the intersections of installation, moving image, sound, text, participatory practice and performance, Zarina’s practice has been interested in the broader contexts of eco-cultural landscapes, myth-making, haunted historiographies and role of the artist as “cultural ventriloquist” who lends polyphonic voices to data-driven systems, multi species entanglements and shapeshifting worlds. Her long-term interdisciplinary project investigates Southeast Asia’s evolving relationship with spectrality, ritual magic, polysensoriality, and the immaterial, examining these themes against the backdrop of global modernity, the social production of rationality, and transcultural exchanges of knowledge. She has presented her art installations, performances and moving image work widely at international biennales and institutions, and is the winner of the 2022 IMPART Art Prize.

Kah Gay
Publisher, Ethos Books

As the publisher of Ethos Books, Kah Gay focuses on making books and supporting an environment for literature, the arts and culture in Singapore and Southeast Asia. The passionate and experienced team is part of a growing ecology of independent agents producing and circulating fiction, non-fiction and poetry that speak to our times, including critical concerns such as climate action.

Lavender Chang
Visual Artist

Lavender Chang is a visual artist known for her time-based, process-driven conceptual photography and filmmaking. Her works explore the imperceptibility and transience of time, memory, and mortality, often leaving traces of these themes within her imagery. In recent years, Chang has expanded into filmmaking, serving as the cinematographer for John Clang’s feature films Their Remaining Journey (2018) and A Love Unknown (2020), both of which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her directorial debut, Absent Smile, premiered at the 2022 Singapore International Film Festival. Chang has received numerous awards, including the President Design Awards and the France+ Singapore Photographic Art Awards. Her works have been shown globally, including at the Singapore Art Museum, National Gallery Singapore, the Peranakan Museum, and venues across China, Malaysia, and New York, among others. She has also given TED talks, furthering her influence in both art and film.

Alexander Lee
Film programmer, Asian Film Archive

Alexander Lee is a Singapore-based film programmer and filmmaker. He is currently part of the programming team at the Asian Film Archive, where he contributes to its monthly film programmes.
His work spans programming, criticism, and filmmaking. As Programme Manager at the Mental Health Film Festival Singapore (2022–2024), he curated films and panels that fostered open dialogue on mental health. He participated in the Critics Lab at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF) and the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). As a filmmaker, he has also shot multiple short films and collaborated on narrative projects.