The 3rd National Short Film Festival, organised by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts’ Cinema and Cultural Diffusion Department, will take place from December 16-20. The five-day event features 35 short films from Cambodian filmmakers, which will be screened free to the public.

Pok Borak, director department, said the festival aims to encourage young filmmakers, as the development of their abilities to innovate will contribute to the development of the

national film industry. With this is mind, the theme for this year’s festival is “Short Film as a Stepping Stone to Feature Films”.

“We have received 35 entries for this years’ competition. Of these, four were produced by graduates of the Cambodia Film Lab, which was run by my department. The course was led by Deependra Gauchan, and focused on three main subjects: script writing, directing and cinematography,” he explained, at a December 12 press conference.

Three major awards and five incentive prizes will be awarded at the December 20 closing ceremony of the festival.

“The biggest prize is the Gold Award. The winner will receive a medal and a cash prize of 12 million riel, donated by Major Cineplex by Smart. This will be followed by the Silver Award, also accompanied by a medal and a cash prize, this time of 8 million riel, sponsored by Hanuman Beverages. The Bronze Award will earn a medal and 4 million riel, sponsored by Westec Media,” said Borak.

The five incentive prizes include the Audience Choice Award, which will earn the winners a digital camera from Ream Productions. The Special Jury Award comes with a three million riel prize from Legend Cinema.

The Best Script Award will earn one production team two million riel from Media Load, with both the Rising Director

and Technical Excellence awards also worth two million riel, from sponsors Trimulia Hotel and M-Pictures, respectively.

All of the entries will go through two stages of evaluation by the festival’s sub-committee. The first phase relies on seven judges, who will evaluate all of the films before selecting their top five pieces. These will be forwarded to the final judging panel, who will announce their top three on the final day of the festival.

During the first phase, the judges will also make recommendations for the incentive prize winners.

Sin Chan Saya, a representative of the judging panel, explained the six criteria that the subcommittee must focus on.

“The most important things they must consider are the directing and the script. The remaining four criteria are more about technical aspects of film production, like camera operation, art, sound and editing,” he said.

Ek Buntha, deputy director general of Cultural Technique Department of the fine arts ministry, expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the team at the cinema department and their sponsors.

“The 3rd National Short Film Festival, which is scheduled to be held this weekend, is an important and necessary event. It will encourage young people to express their ideas through the screen and is the first step in them becoming filmmakers,”” he said.

“I am very appreciative of the festival’s organising committee. Not only are they running this festival, they have organised courses on screenwriting, directing and filming skills over the past three months, providing opportunities and basic knowledge of filmmaking techniques to our young creators. This will contribute to our goal of promoting the sustainable growth of the Cambodian film industry,” he added.

Eight cinemas in Phnom Penh will screen competition entrants: Major Cineplex Aeon 1, Major Cineplex Aeon 2, Legend Cinema at Eden Garden, Legend Cinema at Olympia, Prime Cinema at Samai Square, Prime Cinema at Chom Chao, the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center Cinema and the Institut Français du Cambodge.

“In addition to screening the competing short films, the festival programme also includes 33 short documentaries that show traditional life and culture along the Mekong River. These

short films were produced by the trainees of a documentary filmmaking course run by the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center,” added Borak.