NOIR film Last Lonely Night has won the DigiCon6 Gold Award for Malaysia, hosted by Veedo and supported by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC).
This short film by Shiroku Productions, Marna Films and Big Asia Pictures will thus compete in the 18th DigiCon6 Asia in Japan on Nov 19.
Director Peter Chin said filming Last Lonely Night was a walk beyond his comfort zone of commercial filmmaking. “The idea of Last Lonely Night came about when (producer) Jay Sheldon and I spoke about the film noir genre and how no one in Malaysia was exploring it,” said Chin.
“Jay mentioned 1930s films, and I thought it would be great to have a fictional American detective in 1930s Kuala Lumpur tell a story from his perspective.”
Last Lonely Night is an experimental film noir about an American detective pursuing a mysterious lover in 1930s British Malaya.
Chin, the head engineer of Shiroku Productions, produces commercials, but also loves fantasy films. He shot Last Lonely Night in two days, featuring scenes in London, Chicago and Malaya. The film was submitted for several international film festivals, including DigiCon6.
Last Lonely Night was also chosen as one of the Official Selections of Corti Da Sogni Worldwide Fiction (Film Festival) in Ravenna, Italy in May last year. Chin said: “I’m optimistic we will awe audiences in Japan, as we did in Italy”.
The 18th DigiCon6 Asia is an annual competition hosted by Tokyo Broadcasting System to seek new talents across Asia and showcase them to potential buyers and collaborators.
The Malaysian leg of the competition recently announced five winners, including Last Lonely Night. These films will be submitted for the regional competition but Last Lonely Night the Gold Award winner will be Malaysia’s sole representative to face the best short films from other participating countries.