Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and Progresif Media announced the winners of the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival 2022 in a Closing Ceremony took that place in Pro Chancellor Arts Centre on Tuesday, 6th December, 2022.
For the first time ever, the 5th edition PRISM became one of the events under the umbrella of ASEAN University Network on Culture and the Arts (ANC-CA). As a result, a record total of 26 shortlisted student short films from UBD, University Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Politeknik Brunei, National University of Singapore (NUS), and De La Salle University Manila were screened in the opening screening on Tuesday, 15th November, followed by a three-week (16th November to 5th December) online streaming hosted on Progresif Media – the biggest local content streaming platform in Brunei.
During the Closing Ceremony, each winning short film in the four competition categories received a certificate of achievement and a cash prize of BND500, offered by the organiser of PRISM UBD Short Film Festival – the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at UBD. The award-winning short films of the 5th Edition PRISM are:
Lingering (directed by Suryane Zaine of National University of Singapore) won the Best Fiction Short Film Award
Menanti (directed by Nur Jazmeen Farzana Amirnuddin of Universiti Brunei Darussalam) won the Best Smartphone-Made Short Film Award
Paws Up (directed by Mohamad Arif Zakwan Mohamad Amiruddin of Politeknik Brunei) won the Best Documentary Short Film Award
The Origin of Gold River Village (directed by Muhammad Amar Mubasyir Junaidi of Universiti Brunei Darussalam) won the Best Animation Short Film Award
An additional award category this year was the People’s Choice Awards sponsored by Progresif Media. The winner was chosen based on the most popular votes gained throughout the online streaming period on Progresif Media’s website between 17th November to 5th December. The Head of Digital Innovation at Progresif, Haziq Sahrip, presented the BND300 cash prize and a certificate of achievement to this year’s People’s Choice Award winner – 25th Anniversary with LSDC – Street: Excellence Explained (directed by Mycs Villoso, De La Salle University Manila, Republic of Philippines). According to Progresif’s Media Team Head Olivia Ong: “This year’s 5th PRISM Short Film Festival received a total of 1,337 votes for the 26 short film entries, comparatively from last year’s 337 votes. The winner garnered 23 percent of the total votes.”
Corresponding to the 5th PRISM elevating to a regional student short film festival in competitions, this year’s PRISM appreciated the dedication and fair judging work from an international jury panel chaired by Dr Kathrina Haji Mohd Daud, the Dean of FASS at UBD, and comprised of two Bruneian judges, Rosnani Haji Md Yussof from the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and A’aqiil Ahmad from Filterworks Productions, as well as two international judges Mary Loh from National University of Singapore (NUS) and Glorife Samodio from De La Salle University Manila.
The uniqueness of the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival Closing Ceremony was the two panel discussions following the award presentation. The first panel was the traditional jury commenting session moderated by jury chair Dr Kathrina Haji Mohd Daud and joined by jury judge A’aqiil Ahmad. They introduced to the audience how the judges came to the final decision of the winners in the four competition categories. The second panel was organised by Progresif Media titled “Creators’ panel: The Realities of a Budding Filmmaker in Brunei”, which was joined by four invited speakers, all young filmmakers in Brunei which included Natasya Jazmeena, Azeez Danial, Akmal Marhain and moderated by Iskandar Karim. Both panel discussions were extremely beneficial and inspiring for the attending student filmmakers from UBD and other higher education institutions in Brunei.
Following the Closing Ceremony, a rerun of the 5th PRISM Opening Screening of all the short film finalists were shown on FASS UBD Official YouTube Channel on the same day for those interested in watching again the 26 selected titles in the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival. A few student filmmakers will have an opportunity to discuss with Progresif Media on how to commercialise their short film works based on a SVOD revenue-sharing agreement signed between the students and Progresif Media.