The 1st official selection of Singapore Shorts ’26 contests the definition of the “body” through two different strands — the human body and bodies of water. Jen Nee Lim’s Buah (2025) centres on issues of bodily autonomy with a supernatural twist, set during a world in which abortion is illegal. Hoe Jian Wei’s fish (2025) hijacks familiar horror tropes to explore intergenerational inheritance.

Meanwhile, Alistair Quak’s Seismic Brain Implosion (2025) creates an experimental, out-of-body experience that resonates with Hollywood science-fiction films, but set in a refreshingly local context. In contrast, the meditative documentary Bedungan (2025, jee chan) revisits Indonesia’s colonial past through lingering shots of the natural landscape, drawing attention to the passage of time in the movement of wind and sea currents. Saksham Mehrotra’s Seaward (2025) provides much-needed breathing room within this programme by zooming into the complex lives of tiny sea creatures, shedding light on minute yet intricate interactions within the ecosystem.

There will be 5 short films screened for Official Selection 1 of Singapore Shorts ‘26.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers moderated by Tzang Merwyn Tong.

The Rating for Selection 1 is R21. The total duration is 68 min.

bendungan
SOUTHEAST ASIA PREMIERE
Year: 2025
Director: jee chan
Runtime: 30 min
Country: Germany, Indonesia, Singapore
Language: Dutch, English, Indonesian, Javanese with English subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis:
What do water bodies know, remember and transmit? bendungan is an Indonesian word which can refer to a dam, river bank or sea bank. The film follows three people who live close to these water bodies in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

bendungan blends choreographed gestures with intimate interviews to explore the socio-spatial histories of water bodies — seas, rivers, and the human body. The film investigates the memory of water and its role in the Dutch colonial project across the Malay Archipelago, the Nusantara.

Director’s Bio:
jee chan (all pronouns) is an artist working in the fields of dance and expanded choreography. Their work is concerned with questions surrounding the displaced body and what it can perform. Characterised by hybridity and syncretism, their practice engages with oral histories, ancestral epistemologies and the representation of (auto)biographies, particularly among the contexts of Southeast Asia. A member of the inaugural artistic cohort at the Rose Choreographic School (Sadler’s Wells, London) their transdisciplinary work has been presented at Sophiensaele, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), DOK Leipzig and the International Festival of Films on Art (Montreal).

fish
WORLD PREMIERE
Year: 2025
Director: Hoe Jian Wei
Runtime: 8 min
Country: Singapore
Language: English, Mandarin, Hokkien with English subtitles
Rating: PG13

Synopsis:
During a family dinner, a boy’s choking incident triggers a surreal possession by his late grandfather, forcing the family to confront generational struggles and buried truths.

Director’s bio
Jian Wei is a Singaporean artist and filmmaker whose work navigates the blurred boundaries of memory, discipline, and familial ritual. Drawing from lived experiences and generational trauma, his films blend surrealism with short-form storytelling, often through fragmented structure and unconventional framing.

seaward
Year: 2025
Director: Saksham Mehrotra
Runtime: 8 min
Country: Singapore
Language: English with subtitles
Rating: G

Synopsis:
Singapore’s coastlines are always in flux — a delicate dance between the receding tides and the rising earthmovers. seaward drifts through the peripheries of this landscape, offering a quiet meditation on the life that endures at the edges of a changing island.

Director’s bio:
Saksham is a tree hugger who grew up in the Himalayas at a time when India was caught in its rapid pursuit of urbanisation. Through his work, Saksham tries to understand the line that threads between the human desire to develop infinitely and the inherent yearning to preserve nature.

Seismic Brain Implosion
ASIA PREMIERE
Year: 2025
Director: Alistair Quak
Runtime: 7 min
Country: Singapore
Language: English with subtitles
Rating: R21

Synopsis:
A man attempts to harness the maximum potential of the human mind, in order to deliver a life altering message.

Director’s bio:
Alistair Quak is a director who constantly aims to push the boundaries of storytelling with his visceral cinematic styles. His short films have travelled to some of the biggest Genre festivals, such as Fantastic Fest, Fantasia Film Festival and SXSW Sydney.

Buah
Year: 2025
Director: Jen Nee Lim
Runtime: 15 min
Country: Singapore
Language: Malay with English subtitles
Rating: R21

Synopsis:
In a time and place where abortion is illegal, a pregnant woman’s repeated attempts to end her pregnancy fail, until she crosses paths with a strange bus driver.

Director’s bio:
Jen spent 15 years working as a producer and writer across film acquisition, marketing, and distribution, including producing the International Emmy-nominated web series People Like Us. She shifted her focus to directing, beginning with Elsa, a docu-short that received a Special Mention at SeaShorts, followed by The Note, which screened at Inside Out Toronto. Her latest short, Buah (Fruit), world premiered in Busan and screened at Sundance, Clermont-Ferrand and SXSW in early 2026. She is currently developing Trash, a revisionist western short, and Unmother, her debut feature film.

For the full Singapore Short ’26 programme, please click here.

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