Viddsee Announces Winners of Juree Awards Singapore 2019

Press Release

Singapore, October 21, 2019 – Two outstanding Singaporean short films, ’Breakdown’ and ‘The Veiled Willow’, were honoured at the second annual Viddsee Juree Awards Singapore, an annual industry pick award celebrating best short films from Singapore. The awards ceremony was held on October 20 at *SCAPE Gallery.

The Gold winner is Gabriel Isaac Goh for ‘Breakdown’, a short film critiquing the value of work and life, told through the tale of two auxiliary police officers whose van breaks down in afar-flung corner of Singapore – hours before the subordinate officer’s first-born child is due.

Made by Gabriel, a former student of Nanyang Technological University and now a producer at ChannelNews Asia, the short film competed in the Media Student Category of the National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) 2018.

“The film was born out of our tough situations in working together and dealing with bureaucracy. Ultimately I wanted to make the audience question themselves what if, in a system that works well, a kink happens — are we trained enough as a society to make our own individual conscious decisions?” said Gabriel.

Eva Tang was named the Silver winner for ‘The Veiled Willow’, a love story set in 1960s Singapore that revolves around two workers in a household, one a chef and the other a maid-servant. Formerly a journalist, Eva is an accomplished director whose feature documentary ‘The Songs We Sang’ has now spun off books in the same name, documenting the xinyao movement in Singapore.

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“When I was commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, I wanted to create a Cantonese short form film that makes up for the long-lost mother tongue, and keep alive the memories of these elaborate Cantonese dishes through the film,” Eva said.

“But it’s also a film about human relationships, how people care for each other and the sacrifices they make in very subtle ways,” she added.

Mei Ann Teo also received a special mention for ‘Let Me Kill My Mother First’, a drama based on the autobiographical writings of Christine Chia. The short film centres on a teenage daughter

who deals with her mother’s abuse by escaping into an imaginary world, where she has the physical prowess to take on her mother.

The winners were picked by a jury comprising Tim Redford, who is part of the Executive Team of Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and sits on the board of the Short Film Conference; Kattie Fan, the festival director of ifva – a short film and media art awards and festival organised by the Hong Kong Arts Centre; and Sanif Olek, a film and television director whose film ‘Sayang Disayang’ was Singapore’s first official entry to the 2015 Oscars® (Best Foreign Language Film).

Aside from the main awards, the Audience Choice Award went to ‘Trailer Boys’ by Yusri Sapari, a documentary that spotlights a community of heavy vehicle drivers from Singapore. The winner was chosen following a public voting period from Sept 12-26.

In the two days prior to the awards ceremony, the event also featured panel discussions on current topics such as personal branding, Storytelling To The Woke, and Telling Stories From Within Communities, as well as conversations with filmmakers like last year’s Juree Silver winner Kaizer Thng, and the team behind ‘Lasagna (Eve Without Adam)’, which became the first film to achieve its crowdfunding goal on VEE by Viddsee.

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The Gold winner was awarded a film production grant worth SGD10,000 and a five-day Global Film & TV Program in Los Angeles sponsored by the Motion Picture Association.

In addition to the grant, the Gold winner received a 14-day loan for RED Digital Cinema camera equipment with a five-lens set of ZEISS CP.3 Lenses, while the Silver winner will received a

14-day loan of RED Digital Cinema camera equipment and the ZEISS Light Weight Zoom LWZ.3 21-100mm lens. Gold and Silver winners both received a 14-day loan for Sachtler tripod system and Litepanels LED products provided by Vitec.

City Music will provide the Gold winner with a Zoom F4 Field Recorder, and the Silver winner with a Zoom H6 Handy Recorder. Iceberg Studios will offer the Gold winner post-production services for a short film and the Silver winner offline post-production services for a short film. The post-production services include colour grading sponsored by Eugene Seah.

All ten finalists will receive a 12-month Creative Cloud All Apps subscription from Adobe.

The annual Juree Awards initiative debuted in Indonesia in 2016, and expanded to include the Philippines in 2017, and Singapore in 2018. Find out more about the Juree Awards.

The public can learn more about the Juree Awards Programme, as well as watch all nominated and other out-of-competition films for free.

Jury Citations for Viddsee Juree Awards Singapore 2019 Gold Winner

Winning Film: Breakdown

Director: Gabriel Isaac Goh

Citation by Jury member Sanif Olek: A smartly crafted, well-paced film that strips away much of any possible distracting visual embellishments and fancy editing techniques to focus instead on its protagonists to tell its story. ‘Breakdown’ breaks down into a psychological study that provokes conversations about duty and responsibility. Situating the drama in a forest aptly takes the portrayal of humanity to its foundation. The film ‘Breakdown’ takes the gold prize for the effort.

Silver Winner

Winning Film: The Veiled Willow

Director: Eva Tang

Citation by Jury member Kattie Fan: A professionally-made short film composed of holistic look and feel, aesthetically beautiful cinematography and art direction. The dialogue is sufficient without being abundant, and pull each character close enough to feel the tension. A poetic story portrays a self-combed woman who chose independence over marriage, who decides to live her own life. The silver award goes to ‘The Veiled Willow’ by Eva Tang.

Special Mention

Film: ‘Let Me Kill My Mother First’

Director: Mei Ann Teo

Citation by Jury member Tim Redford: A masterfully choreographed and orchestrated piece of filmmaking that shows us the creative universe of this author. For its ambitious and original approach but also for the fun that there is in this film, the jury decided to give out a Special Mention to ‘Let Me Kill My Mother First’, a film that moves from absurdity to fantastic, that brilliantly draws a portrait of what it is to live under an abusive parent.