Following last year’s successful inauguration and completion, the second edition of Brunei Content Festival (BCF) 2023 kicked off in mid-July with the nationwide open call for creative content submission and wrapped up with the highlights of Award Night took place in Dewan Serambi Suluh, Tarindak D’Seni, Bandar Seri Begawan, on Tuesday 12 September 2023.
For the second consecutive year, UBD short films shone in this national screen and media content exhibition and competition event. Six short films made by FASS DCI students were among the total 98 official submissions, which were showcased on a big screen set up in the Gadong Mall atrium from 8 to 10 September 2023. In the BCF Award Night, short film Nilai Part 1 (7 min, 2023) co-directed by UBD students Danish Qawi Haszahaidi and Dzul Iskandar Shambol, won the Best Short Film Award under Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) Open Category and bagged BND 2,000 cash award prize. Last year, Not Toaster (2021) made by another group of UBD students won the same award in the inaugural Brunei Content Festival in June 2022.
Nilai Part 1 (2023) was a coursework assignment submitted to AX-2309 Digital Photography and Videography module in the second semester of 2022-2023 academic year, and was screened among 30 student shorts in the 5th edition UBD-FASS Term Screening earlier in April 2023. All the five crew members of making Nilai are current undergraduate students majored in Design and Creative Industries (DCI) programme under FASS. They are Awg Haji Muhammad Danish Qawi bin Haji Haszahaidi, Awg Mohammad Dzul Iskandar bin Shamsol, Dyg Sorfina binti Ahmad Irawadi, Dyg Sabrina binti Ahmad Irawadi, and Dyg Nur Iffah Adilah binti Haji Idris.
Brunei Content Festival was organised by Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI), with the support of RTBGo and Progresif Media. It is an exhibition and competition platform to recognise local content creators, producers, directors, filmmakers, and art activists in broadcasting TV sector and online streaming business, indicating AITI’s effort and purpose to encourage artistic innovation and narrative creativity in the field of local content creation.