A pair of shoes wins top prize at Cathay Motion Picture Awards 2014

SINGAPORE — At the Cathay Motion Picture Awards, you could say the winning team walked away with top honours.

Sole Sisters, a short film about a pair of shoes by writer-director Tom Zacharski and editor-cinematographer Sophia Phuong Dao, won Best Motion Picture at the annual short film competition, which is now in its third year. The team took home a cash prize of S$15,000, the biggest amount for a film-making competition in Singapore.

Organised by Cathay Organisation, the only movie exhibitor to organise an annual short film competition, this year’s theme was Sisters. It’s a nod to its first big-screen production in 15 years, Our Sister Mambo, which will stars Moses Lim, Michelle Chong and Siti Kalijah.

In conjunction with Cathay’s 79th anniversary celebrations, the short films have a running time of 79 seconds and a production deadline of 79 hours.

Chopsticks by Team CGO (Chia Teng Long, Ong Shu Yang and Rayen Goh), bagged second place and a S$8,000 prize, while Dancing Queens by Team Martini (Martin Hong, Liu Longhao and Kelvin Chew) placed third, with a S$5,000 prize. The latter was also voted Viewers’ Choice.

The winners were determined by a judging panel that included Chris Marsh, Walt Disney Company South-east Asia’s General Manager of Studio Entertainment, and actress director Michelle Chong.

There were 111 entries submitted, with the top 15 shortlisted works made available for public voting and viewing.

The film-makers behind the winning films will also receive an exclusive Cathay VIP card worth more than $4,000.

Sole Sisters, Chopsticks and Dancing Queens will be screened in Cathay Cineplexes next year.