Welcome to the Objectifs Short Film Festival 2026!
Short films have always been part of Objectifs’ ecosystem. Since 2003, we have shared short films with local audiences and school students, and in 2006, established Southeast Asia’s first short film distribution arm to bring the world of Southeast Asian short films to festivals, buyers, and broadcasters everywhere.
Over the years, we’ve continued to celebrate short films through education and screenings across different formats, from the big screen to digital platforms. But as one of the few spaces in Singapore that champions short films, we felt something more was needed. Singapore’s short film landscape still lacks a dedicated platform of its own. Short films are one of the purest forms of storytelling there is. In minutes, they can hold entire worlds, and we believe those worlds deserve a stage.
This brings us to our inaugural edition, centred on the tagline Normal Is An Illusion. The short film format frees storytellers to experiment, often opening space for questioning, imagination, and empathy. In an environment where the lines between real and artificial are increasingly blurred, and truth can sometimes feel like fiction, we invite you to join us in exploring the possibilities of what is normal.
Objectifs Chapel Gallery & Filmhouse
22 to 31 October 2026
Microsite coming soon!
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Festival Programme
Thu 22 Oct 2026, 7.30pm – 9pm
Screening Rating: NC16
French filmmaking duo Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel are known for bold and uncompromising works that blend themes of resistance with hybrid multimedia forms. Employing a cinematic language that is radical, ingenious, and expressive, their films are driven by critical reflections on political and social issues, which no doubt situate them among the most innovative voices in film and art today. Hypnotic Bursts brings together a selection of the duo’s acclaimed short films for the first time in Singapore, where viewers are invited to set foot in a world of freedom and possibilities.
The programme includes the following films
1. After School Knife Fight / 21:37 min / France / 2017
Laëtitia, Roca, Nico and Naël are in a band. As per usual, they meet late afternoon before rehearsal in a vacant lot. The group will soon no longer exist; they will be forced to disband because Laetitia is moving away to study. This is the story of four young adults who do not want to say goodbye.
2. Baby Anger / 13:29 min / France / 2020
A lost baby toon, confronted with a contemporary world and its empty spaces, asks himself how to grow up.
3. Watch The Fire or Burn Inside It / 18:21 min / France / 2022
In Corsica, a woman chooses to care for the earth by burning it.
4. How Are You? / 31 min / France / 2025
A group of animals live on a wild coastline and try to heal the ills caused by the contemporary world. A kind of rehab.
More information and ticket prices here.
View all festival screenings here.
Fri 23 Oct 2026, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Screening Rating: TBC
FreshTake! is a short film programme featuring works by first-time and early-stage filmmakers. It aims to celebrate the myriad voices of students, recent graduates, and youths from diverse backgrounds who embody the spirit of risk-taking through their films. This year’s selection presents stories that examine the reason behind protests, explore the struggles of familial relationships, and engage in play with genres. Discover what currently piques the curiosity of the next generation of Singaporean filmmakers through their works.
Curated by EXYL and Objectifs
The programme includes the following films
1. Bahay-Bahayan by Marienne Louise / 10:11 min / Singapore / 2025
Joanna, a Filipina in her mid-20s, has little to no connection left with her Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) mother. As she faces adulthood, she must decide if she wants to let go of her past. Bahay-Bahayan follows Joanna as she reels back to her past through memory and nostalgia.
2. Where The Heart Sings Freedom by Clemens Choy / 7:15 min / Singapore / 2025
Since the 1988 coup, music has been a big part of the Burmese resistance. Rebel forces march to these songs, singing of freedom from the military Junta. Unravel Myanmar’s turbulent political history through the lens of Burmese revolutionary musicians in Mae Sot, Thailand.
3. Kamikaze Lizard by Joel Lim / 15:30 min / Singapore / 2025
Juliet is reborn as the Lizard Hunter ‘Umbrella Girl’ after dying at the hands of the Kamikaze Lizard. Umbrella Girl hunts down Kamikaze Lizard and must save a young man trapped in despair before the creature traps them both in oblivion.
4. seaward by Saksham Mehrotra / 8 min / Singapore / 2025
Singapore has long adopted the rhetoric that land reclamation and coastal redevelopment are necessary for its survival. seaward drifts through the peripheries of these coastlines, bearing witness and asking a simple question, “do we know the coast that we stand to lose?”.
5. Lintasan by Claudia Michelle / 7:25 min / Singapore / 2026
Set at a lighthouse near the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link, a Singaporean woman is forced to choose between her home country and her lover’s after her Malaysian boyfriend’s sudden proposal threatens to pull them toward opposite shores.
6. Last Supper by Valerie Theodas / 6 min / Singapore / 2025
An overworked entomologist’s obsession with moths leads to the ingestion of a mysterious mould, catalysing a surreal descent into self-annihilation through futile attempts at purification.
More information and ticket prices here.
View all festival screenings here.
Sat 24 Oct 2026, 4.30pm – 6pm
Screening Rating: NC16
Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival is the largest short film festival in the world. It showcases over 400 short films a year, with long queues to match. This programme pulls together highlights from the festival’s official selection, featuring stories that capture life in flux.
The programme includes the following films
1. We Were Here by Pranav Bhasin / 10:35 min / India / 2025
In small town India, convinced that machines are quietly replacing them, three retired men threaten to take over the jobs of household appliances. But when one of their children lands a job at an A.I. company, it rattles their crusade and makes them wonder if they’ve already been left behind.
2. Genealogy of Violence by Mohamed Bourouissa / 15:15 min / France / 2024
A young man sits in the car with his girlfriend. Two policemen in an unmarked car pull up to command a routine identity check. They invite him out and proceed methodically to a pat-down, as he stands in front of the car, under the dismayed eyes of his girlfriend.
3. What If They Bomb Here Tonight by Samir Syriani / 16 min / Lebanon / 2025
Samir and Nadyn, a Lebanese couple, spend a sleepless night anxious and fearing an Israeli airstrike could shatter the glass walls of their home. With their children peacefully asleep, they battle with whether to flee or risk the worst and stay.
4. We Beg To Differ by Ruairí Bradley / 12 min / Ireland, United Kingdom / 2024
In the underground world of diffing, a community finds solace in their passion, as they navigate personal struggles and challenges both on and off the road.
5. God Is Shy by Jocelyn Charles / 15:34 min / France / 2025
During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.
More information and ticket prices here.
View all festival screenings here.
Sun 25 Oct 2026, Timing TBC | Filmhouse
Screening Rating: TBC
Focus presents the early short films of a key international filmmaker. The showcase will consist of rarely seen short films, with a post-screening Q&A with the filmmaker.
We are proud to be able to feature two of film auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s earlier documentaries, Lessons from a Calf and Where Has All The Pollution Gone? for the inaugural edition of the Objectifs Short Film Festival.
Known for his seminal works like Maborosi, Nobody Knows and Shoplifters, Kore-eda’s inception as a director came about through television documentaries that he directed and conceptualised in 1987 for NONFIX, a late-night documentary series that was broadcasted on Fuji Television. The opportunity and experimentation afforded through work for NONFIX, which included Lessons from a Calf and However… led to Kore-eda’s perennial fascination with an image’s potential to communicate intention, as well as elicit emotion. As observed through his later fictional films, Kore-eda’s hallmark ability to harness an ironically steely eye in order to garner empathy for issues pertaining to social realism has evident roots in his earlier television work.
Witness the beginnings of Kore-eda Hirokazu’s journey as a filmmaker in this rare chance to watch his early films, as well as trace his directing methodology from the initial craft of documentary, all with the filmmaker himself in attendance.
The programme includes the following films
Lessons From A Calf / 47 min / Japan / 1991
In 1988, Ina Elementary School adopted a cow named Laura from a ranch as a part of the school’s integrated learning program. Students learn from building the cow’s barn, calculating the feed cost and debating in class for making decisions. Capturing the kids’ lively expressions, the documentary witnesses their growth through the care of Laura. Kore-eda’s first project, mostly rolling a video camera by himself.
Where Has All The Pollution Gone? / 47 min / Japan / 1992
In early 1960s Chiba, pollution from a steel factory left locals with asthma. Ministry of Environment bureaucrat Hashimoto Michio became a hero after drafting Japan’s first pollution control law in 1967. But as certified patients multiplied and compensation costs strained the economy, the government deregulated the law, declaring the pollution resolved. Because of this, Hashimoto was recast as a traitor by victims who knew otherwise.
Ticket sales and timing TBC
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Thu 29 Oct 2026, 7.30pm – 9pm
Screening Rating: PG13
Discover the latest Japanese animation shorts from NeW NeW, a Creator Support Program initiative connecting Japanese animators to the world. With the slogan ‘NeW Way, NeW World’, dive into these bold stories that promises to offer a NeW way of seeing.
The programme includes the following films
1. Hoichi (Work In Progress) by Hoji Tsuchiya / 4:05 min / Japan / 2025
Lured by the gifted blind Hochi’s skills in playing the biwa (Japanese short-necked wooden lute), spirits began visiting him and he performed for them night after night. Fearing that the ghosts would eventually claim his life, the priest covered his entire body with sacred sutra writings to protect him. Caught between the visible world and the unseen, Hoichi’s heart raged violently.
2. Difference and Repetition and Coffee by Masa Kudo/ 4:45 min / Japan / 2020
A serene, pencil-drawn animation portraying the repitition and daily scenes of a coffee shop.
3. One Day by Shohei Ohmae / 3:39 min / Japan / 2022
In a world filled with uncertainty, life continues as the seasons turn. People move along with these changes, a little lost but also finding small pleasures and joys.
4. My Organs Lying on the Ground by Shinobu Soejima / 11 min / Japan / 2024
In a cave, it wakes. Human in shape, but only an empty puppet. As the line between self and other dissolves, it realises the cycle of life and death.
5. happy eyescream by Shiika Okada / 14:59 min / Japan / 2025
Tsumire idolises her older brother. She believes everything he says although she looks down on his girlfriends, except for QT, a conspiracy theorist whom she admires. Troubled by her small eyes since childhood, Tsumire’s perspective in life starts to change through her interactions with QT.
6. IIZUNA FAIR by Sumito Sakakibara / 11:33 min / Japan / 2021
In the midst of a frenzied night, a man finds himself lost in the crevasse of time. Buried under broken promises, he is held at a distance from a place he longs for, while words drift to him from the shore.
More information and ticket prices here.
View all festival screenings here.
Fri 30 Oct 2026, 9pm – 11pm
Screening Rating: R21
The Compiled Tapes presents the first, complete retrospective of Malaysian-American artist Azian Nurudin’s work. Made between the height of San Francisco’s LGBTQ revolution and the turmoil of the AIDS epidemic, these twelve films spanning 1986 to 2001 are an unabashed declaration of lesbian BDSM and solidarity.
After completing a degree in music production at Mills College, Nurudin fell in with a “bratty” group of women insurgent artists, including Cecilia Dougherty and Leslie Singer (Grapefruit, 1988) at the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1980s. Together, they shared resources and labour, taking on various roles in each other’s productions. Armed with a cracking whip and access to a plethora of cameras like the DV, PXL2000 and 16mm film cameras, Nurudin spent the next decade in her signature shades, leather jacket and baju kurung, prowling the streets of San Francisco to make her films.
Supported by her friends in the collective, Nurudin was able to act on instinct and at the point of inspiration. The resulting works are ripe with dynamic sexual and political tension, with stunning undertones of tender and delicate feeling. Following a successful run at the Queer East Festival, this retrospective reflects on an artist’s unflinching resolve to bring together her interest in music, film and pop culture, as well as her burgeoning involvement in the BDSM and performance art scene all at once, for a heady maximalisation of passion and pleasure.
Curated by Sasha Han, Renee Ng and Daryl Cheong
The programme includes the following films
1. Bitter Strength: Sadistic Response Version / 2:22 min / US / 1992
In a series of fragmented images, extreme close-ups and harried camera movements, Bitter Strength: Sadistic Response Version turns the heavy pixels of PXL2000 into a feverish playground of S&M desire.
2. Nancy’s Nightmare / 5:34 min / US / 1988
Set to the toe-tapping tune of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and Megadeth’s “These Boots”, a pair of lovers engage in flogging, bootblacking and other BDSM shenanigans.
3. Automobile Clean-up Expediency / 6:48 min / US / 1988
Azian wants to set a car on fire and film it for a project. To do so, she navigates a web of bureaucracy, application processes and increasingly comical phone calls to make this happen.
4. What Do Pop Art, Pop Music, Pornography and Politics Have to do with Real Life / 19:20 / US / 1990
A television talk show hosted by Andy Warhol, played by a deadpan Azian Nurudin, brings together impersonators of Jeff Koons, Ilona Staller, Whitney Houston and an art dealer in this parody feature on the state of Pop Art.
5. The Headhunters of Borneo — A Recollection / 10:35 min / US / 1989
A Malaysian woman in America reflects and immerses herself in the colonial erasure of Dayak headhunting practices across history. While doing so, she becomes inspired to seek out a prey of her own.
6. Binky “Doomsday Loser” / 4:26 min / US / 2001
The last video Azian made was for the now defunct band Binky for their single, “Doomsday Loser”. Four mask-clad singers seize control of their toxic world.
7. The Rehearsal / 5:01 min / US / 1987
Languid bodies rise and fall. A documentation of the rehearsal process of performance artist and dominatrix, Kristine Ambrosia, at her studio.
8. Self-Immolation as an Anachronism / 3:35 min / US / 1988
Azian confronts the continued practice of genital mutilation through a ritual involving doll burning.
9. Malaysian Series 1-6 / 22 min / US / 1986 – 1987
Malaysian Series : 1 Televisyen Di-Atas Dapur
Malaysian Series: 2 Toaster Oven in Armchair
Malaysian Series: 3 Hot Sauce/Sambal Pedas
Malaysian Series: 4 Le Boudoir et la Bicyclette
Malaysian Series: 5 Punishment by Death for the Smuggling of Illegal Narcotics
Malaysian Series: 6 Les Enfants du Paradis
Malaysian Series 1-6 introduces key themes that recur throughout Azian’s work. Each tableau in this series begins with a chapter title (e.g. Malaysian Series: 5 Punishment by Death for the Smuggling of Illegal Narcotics) and features Azian’s enactment of state violence on an object.
10. Without Makeup You Haven’t Got a Prayer / 4:04 min / US / 1988
At an industrial park, performer Caerage boldly undresses, applies makeup and poses for the camera and the wandering eyes of drivers in container trucks and trains passing by.
11. A Gun is Useless in a Dead Girl’s Hands / 2:41 min / US / 1999
Gun kills man. Woman inherits the earth. Armed with guns, germ warfare books and a sleek, two-fingered hand torch, artists Azian Nurudin, Michelle Handelman and Klara Lux hang around shooting ranges and garages, appealing for fellow queer women to “Join the lesbian militia!”.
12. Wicked Radiance / 5:09 min / US / 1991
Shot on PXL2000, a woman secludes herself in the confines of her home and enacts her desires through the intricate patterns and shadows of wayang kulit.
More information and ticket prices here.
View all festival screenings here.
Official Design Partner: Studio Grain
The Objectifs Short Film Festival is part of the Singapore Film Week alongside SGIFF and *SCAPE.