Drag & Drop Website Builder2026.06.30 TUE — 2026.07.02 THU
※ All films will become unavailable once the screening period has ended.
Story
In a near future where society's perception of children in distress is heavily filtered and controlled, a 12-year-old girl becomes the sole survivor of a city destroyed by an apocalyptic strike. Invited to tell the world what happened, she is interviewed as a witness to the catastrophe.
Yet beneath her testimony lies a far more disturbing truth—one that exposes how society chooses to see, ignore, and reshape the suffering of children.
CÉREMONY is a visual fable about aesthetic capture, collective desensitization, and the hidden costs of shielding ourselves from the reality of trauma.
Director Statement
CÉREMONY originated from a question about how contemporary society consumes and represents suffering. Although we are surrounded by images of pain, our experience of them is increasingly mediated by platforms, safety standards, and aesthetic filters designed to make them more acceptable and comfortable to view. In the film, the anime filter is not a science-fiction device but a metaphor for society’s tendency to transform suffering into something more shareable and emotionally manageable.
The film explores the tension between protection and visibility, asking when safeguarding individuals becomes a form of erasure and a way of avoiding responsibility. By combining the precision of a courtroom drama with the surreal intensity of a fever dream, the director invites audiences to confront uncomfortable questions about empathy, representation, and spectatorship.
The film’s visual language was also shaped by the limitations of AI tools. Restrictions on depicting minors in live-action contexts led to a hybrid aesthetic that merges animation and live-action imagery. This technical constraint became an integral part of the film’s thematic core. Rather than presenting empathy as a consumable product, CÉREMONY challenges viewers to engage with it as a risk and a responsibility.
Story
On his first day out of prison, Liu Liang set off for home. But the city had changed beyond recognition. Walking down unfamiliar streets, he felt everyone had lost their memory—no one remembered him, nor could anyone tell him where his home was. As if he had been erased from people's minds and swallowed by time. When he finally reached his house, only to find it had crumbled into rubble, the shock hit him hardest: even his own family seemed to have forgotten him. Lost and adrift, Liu Liang sank into a daze. Had his memory betrayed him? Was this place even his home to begin with?
Director Statement
This film began with my observations of Singapore’s relentless pursuit of wealth and success. In an expensive country where many people are technically millionaires on paper but not in cash, the value of money has become increasingly complex and contradictory.
I chose migrant workers as the focus of this story because they are among those who work the hardest, laboring under the sun in a foreign land while receiving little recognition or reward. Through the journey of two migrant workers who suddenly find themselves in possession of extraordinary luck, the film explores the meaning of money, belonging, and human relationships.
As the characters navigate friendship, betrayal, discrimination, and hope, they are inevitably changed by the prospect of wealth. Yet at the same time, they struggle to preserve the values that define them. By telling this story as a buddy comedy, I wanted to explore how money can transform people while asking a more fundamental question: what is it that ultimately makes us human?
Story
A Bengali migrant worker, Bimal and his China-Chinese migrant friend, Han Ming struck the lottery with their shared bet. The duo journey through hooky, betrayal and avoiding a nationwide witch hunt to claim what’s rightfully theirs. Their path home questions the complication and value of money today, 3.3 Million Singapore dollars more complicated to be exact.
Director Statement
Chicken Run is an attempt to portray the defeatism and frustration experienced by young people in contemporary Korean society through the lens of magical realism and black comedy. The director believes that the most resonant stories are neither purely tragic nor purely comedic, but emerge from the coexistence of both. By finding humor within sorrow and sadness beneath laughter, the film seeks to create a deeper emotional impact.
The film’s central premise—a man whose body transforms into fried chicken—serves as both a surreal narrative device and a metaphor for the realities faced by today’s youth. Although produced as a university project, the filmmakers devoted considerable effort and resources to making this fantastical concept believable and emotionally engaging.
Exploring the blurred boundary between reality and fantasy, the film reflects on personal emotions and social contradictions while balancing humor with melancholy. Through its playful surface and underlying sense of loss, Chicken Run invites audiences to view the struggles of a generation from a fresh and unexpected perspective.
Story
Jinwon, a chicken delivery man running through the night streets, unexpectedly bumps into his ex-girlfriend, Mi-young. As Mi-young questions him about his past, he shows her his deliciously fried chicken arm.
Director Statement
That’s why I approached this film with the thought that a lighthearted, romantic sports comedy might ironically expose the harsh realities that today’s youth face.
Story
Produced as the Grand Prize-winning project of the 2025 Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF) Short Film Project, Kicking Toward Tomorrow! follows David and Goliath FC, an amateur soccer team run by a small Christian church.
For the team's ace player, Dongchan, soccer is far more than a pastime—it is his entire world. Driven by an overwhelming desire to win, he repeatedly throws himself into reckless tackles and dangerous challenges. As injuries mount and the referee's whistle echoes across the field, team captain Jeonghwan realizes he can no longer ignore the problem and decides to intervene.
Director Statement
The struggles young people face when entering society are often seen as an inevitable part of growing up—so common that they’ve gradually become normalized. Feelings of confusion, helplessness, and failure are no longer treated as issues worth addressing, but simply as rites of passage.
Through the experiences of the characters in this film, I hope viewers will see reflections of themselves—whether it’s a moment of past confusion or a struggle they’ve since come to terms with. At the same time, the film aims to shed light on the realities of contemporary Chinese society and provoke thought on how the system responds to individual aspirations: does it embrace diversity, or merely strive for fairness? Between ideals and reality, what truly constitutes a reasonable choice?
Story
After years of struggling in the big city, Nana returns to his hometown hoping for a quieter and more stable life. However, reality proves far different from what he imagined. The town he once considered a refuge is burdened by limited job opportunities, low wages, and relentless competition. As he navigates economic hardship, rigid social structures, and the widening gap between urban and rural life, Nana comes to understand that escaping the city is not the same as finding a place to belong. The pursuit of a better life remains an ongoing struggle.
Director Statement
This film follows the growth of two brothers, Kai and Hiro, who spend their summer vacation on a small island in Shimonoseki. Through encounters with local residents and experiences in the island’s rich natural environment, the brothers gradually discover different perspectives on life and begin to think about their own futures.
For Kai, meeting new people and experiencing the local tradition of chikuwa becomes an opportunity to recognize what truly inspires him. By pursuing his passion, he starts to find direction in life, while Hiro, inspired by his older brother, begins to develop dreams of his own.
The film explores themes of personal growth, family bonds, and community connections through a warm and optimistic lens. Using chikuwa as a symbolic link between people, it celebrates the value of human relationships and the importance of following one’s passions in order to discover new possibilities.
Story
Kai and Hiro, elementary school brothers living in Tokyo, are going to spend their summer vacation at their aunt's house in Shimonoseki.
Their aunt lives on Futaoi-Island in Shimonoseki, known as the "Island where gods dwell in the forests."
Amidst the rich nature, the two brothers begin to grow little by little as they interact with the local people and learn about various values. One day, Kai meets a girl named Kino singing by the sea on the island, which makes him start to think about his own dreams. After tasting the delicious chikuwa (fish cakes) made by Kino's grandfather, Shigeru, Kai is so moved by the flavor that he decides to create a live-streaming show with the local people to share the deliciousness of chikuwa with the world.
On the night of a spectacular drone show, Kai makes a decision that he plans to tell his mother.
Director Statement
This film began with a place: a country house surrounded by an overgrown garden, whose timeless atmosphere seemed to contain stories of its own. It was also inspired by the gaze of the director’s younger brother, who plays the lead role—a gaze marked by both innocence and melancholy.
Rather than relying on conventional storytelling, the film is built through fragments, silences, and ellipses. The director focuses on bodies, gestures, breath, and the relationship between people and space, allowing the camera to move alongside the characters rather than simply observe them. Through this approach, the film explores childhood anxiety, family disintegration, and emotional upheaval through sensation rather than explanation.
More interested in emotional states than narrative events, the film seeks to capture subtle moments of transformation and reveal raw human emotion through looks, silence, and presence.
Story
In a quiet countryside where time seems to stand still, 13-year-old Jacob lives with his parents, whose love for one another has long since faded. Within a home marked by silence and emotional distance, Jacob navigates the fragile world of adolescence while witnessing the slow unraveling of his family.
Drag & Drop Website Builder