RADIN SRI GHAZALI meets the winners of a short film competition and finds out what inspired their choice of subject matter.

Nazim Esa’s For the Love of Drowning was crowned as the grand prize winner of BMW Shorties 2008

ANOTHER dark and deep entry secures victory at the BMW Shorties 2008. Director and writer Nazim Esa won with For the Love of Drowning, and was crowned the grand prize winner.

“I am happy. It was indeed a surprise, a very nice surprise,” Nazim said.

“This is my first attempt at any sort of competition. I have other films but they were neither this good nor watchable,” he joked.

Nazim, who spent RM8,000 for his nine-minute film, says failure in relationships was his inspiration for this movie.
“We are always cautious when it comes to anything to do with our feelings. The story acts as a reminder to all about relationships and how we should be really exercise caution before plunging in.”

The director took three weeks to complete the film.

“We took three days filming it around Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), Kuala Kubu Baru and Bandar Utama. It was another two weeks for post-production. We had five crew members,” he said.

In comparison to the other finalists, Nazim admits having experienced crew and cast including Singapore theatre activist Juliana Yasin and actor cum model James Lim of Hati Malaya 1957.

Bagging RM75,000 for his win, Nazim will be hard at work producing his next feature short film.

“It is too soon to say what my next project would be about but I do have several ideas to work on. One thing for sure, I will strive to ensure that the film will be worth the funding,” he said.

The judges had their clash of opinions during the selection process.

“After sharing our ideas and agreeing on several points, we finally found our winner,” said head judge, Filipino director Raymond Red.

Red hopes future participants will avoid committing the mistakes of this year’s participants.

“Short films are like poetry; beautiful and short. There were entries that tried to cram in as much information as possible within a short time. Directors need to give space to the audience to think,” he said.

He wants to see more entries that tackle themes in a more creative manner.

“We can deal with the same issue over and over again. But filmmakers should use a different method of story-telling. Do something different and refreshing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the People’s Choice Award went to the witty Goat, directed by Mohammad Izwan Kamal.

The film received 773 out of 3,108 votes through the competition’s website.

“I think I had a lot friends voting for me,” Izwan said jokingly about his win.

“One of the reasons why Goat may have appealed is because it is different in its narration. It is a film that deals with an everyday dilemma with a comedic twist. I wanted it to be different from the previous year’s winner, K-Hole by Abdullah Zahir Omar, which was dark and morbid,” added Izwan.

Meanwhile, theatre regular Kimmy Kiew’s Chicken Rice Mystery bagged the Best Actor Award.

“I am shocked. Honestly, there was no expectation to win anything tonight,” said the Flower in the Pocket actress regarding her role as a desperate wife trying to please her husband.

“I felt for her character. She deceived her family for the sake of pleasing them. Most women are able to relate to such situation. She did it beautifully,” said award winning-actress Ida Nerina, who was one of the judges.

Chicken Rice Mystery by Edmund Yeo and Sing in the Rain by Mahaletchumi Tavamany were selected for the Honourable Mention Award.

Both recipients will be heading off to the Rome International Film Festival in October as their reward.

“The only thing I can say is, ‘See you in Rome’,” said Mahaletchumi, laughing.

This year’s competition was judged by Red, Ida, fellow filmmaker Tan Chui Mui and last year’s winner Abdullah Zahir.