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The second edition of the National Youth Film Award (NYFA) aims to help open doors for emerging auteurs

SINGAPORE — Out of 260 submissions, 57 films are selected and nominated for the National Youth Film Award (NYFA). And the student-directors behind them could be the next Anthony Chen or K Rajagopal as the second edition of the NYFA, organised by *SCAPE, gets underway.

SINGAPORE — Out of 260 submissions, 57 films are selected and nominated for the National Youth Film Award (NYFA). And the student-directors behind them could be the next Anthony Chen or K Rajagopal as the second edition of the NYFA, organised by *SCAPE, gets underway.

At the press conference yesterday, NYFA director Nicholas Chee said these 57 nominated works were critically assessed based on industry standards and by NYFA’s 15-member jury panel that included award-winning director and screenwriter Lee Thean-jeen, veteran film-maker and actor Jack Neo, film composer Alex Oh and Kenneth Goh, film producer and distributor.

“We see first-hand the immense talent, unique ideas and fresh content these emerging film-makers bring to the table,” said Chee. “We want to provide not just a platform for them to showcase their work and be recognised by their peers and industry professionals, but to also serve as a springboard for them, opening doors of opportunity for future collaborations.

There are 20 award categories, including seven new ones this year such as Best Colour Grading, Best Lighting and Best Editing in a Documentary Film.

The nominated works are eclectic as well — ranging from personal explorations of death to a wacky documentary about a chicken beauty pageant as well as an animation feature inspired by a 1980s cult classic Mr Vampire. For a budding film-maker like Rifyal Giffari, whose film Sweet Bloom of Night Time Flowers is among the nominees, the NYFA allowed him to experiment with different genres such as fantasy bordering on horror.

Tony Kam, director of Programmes at *SCAPE revealed that the NYFA alumni from the inaugural edition “have gone on to achieve greater things—from releasing their own YouTube web series to working on commissioned films, commercials and music videos”. One of them is Martin Hong, who has conceptualised web series Bloggers Vs Geeks and gone on to take part in the Asian Film Academy, part of the Busan Film Festival 2015.

The winners of NYFA 2016 will be announced at an awards ceremony on July 23.

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