Industry professionals on casting, programming, intimacy coordination, and how to turn filmmaking into a sustainable career
The Objectifs Short Film Incubator is an initiative presented by Objectifs that focuses on developing short film scripts. The programme is open to Southeast Asian filmmakers working with moving images, and will provide five selected participants with mentorship and a valuable support network as they work on their scripts.
Leong Puiyee, Senior Manager at Objectifs, is the key facilitator for the Short Film Incubator. Momo Film Co is the programme partner for the Objectifs Short Film Incubator.
The following online events by guest speakers are open to the public. Please click on the links below to register.
While these are free events, please consider donating to Objectifs if you are able to. Your contribution goes directly to supporting our programmes, and the freelancers and artists we work with.
Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s edition of the Short Film Forum. Please stay tuned to our journal for recaps for the sessions.
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Programme Partner
with Quark Henares
Fri 7 Jul, 7.30pm – 9pm (SGT) via Zoom REGISTER HERE
How can you design a sustainable career trajectory as a filmmaker? Join us for a session with Quark Henares, whose extensive career spans from directing and producing films, to his current position as Head of Originals for Prime Video & Amazon Studios, Philippines. He will be sharing more about the transition from shorts to features, festivals, and streamers, along with how to harness the power of branded content to generate money from short films.
Quark Henares is a multi-awarded filmmaker known for having written and directed feature films such as My Candidate, Rakenrol and Keka, which Variety magazine reviewed as “a refreshing change of pace for Philippine cinema” and Quentin Tarantino called “a hell of a lot of fun”. He also created the cult TV series Rakista for TV5 and has helmed music videos for everyone from Gary V. to Sandwich to Taken by Cars. He is also a musician, DJ, professor and entrepreneur. As the head of Globe Studios, he has executive produced films such as Dead Kids, Fan Girl and Goyo:Ang Batang Heneral. He is also the director for .giff festival of new media.
with Sondos Shabayek
Sat 8 Jul, 5pm – 6.30pm (SGT) via Zoom REGISTER HERE
What does an intimacy coordinator do, and when and why do we need them in film and theatre? Learn how to create a safer working environment for actors and crew with intimacy coordinator Sondos Shabayek. She will share insights into the process of working with an intimacy coordinator from the script stage to post-production, how to identify if you require an intimacy coordinator for your project, and how this role can be adapted to suit other languages, cultures, and countries around the world.
Sondos Shabayek is an Egyptian filmmaker, acting coach, and intimacy co-ordinator based in Berlin with over 12 years of experience. Sondos’ work is dedicated to exploring authentically telling stories of herself and other women and being part of a truthful and honest representation of the lives of women on screen. Sondos is currently part of Safe Sets company (a South African company offering intimacy coordinators for film, television and theatre).
In addition to writing and directing award winning short films, she has also worked as a freelance storytelling workshop facilitator in Egypt and abroad with different cultural and social entities. Over the years, she developed a methodology for creating safe space in workshops where participants can openly share intimate stories about sensitive topics and explore how to take those stories to the stage, and for the documentation of personal narratives and working with story-owners on how to take the stories to the stage. Her work in this kind of documentary/psychodramatic theatre has deepened her understanding of the actor’s process and inner world and allowed her to explore and experiment with individuals through a more human-centered approach that focuses the process on authenticity, fully dedicating the methodology and tools of the work, to the goal of bringing truthful representations of characters and stories to the stage and screen.
with Darunee Terdtoontaveedej, Francis Román, and Maike Mia Höhne
Sat 8 Jul, 8pm – 9.30pm (SGT) via Zoom REGISTER HERE
What do film programmers look out for in programming short films for a festival? What is the future of short film cinema in an era where streaming platforms are prevalent and affecting how audiences consume short film content? Join us for this session to hear from film curators and programmers Darunee Terdtoontaveedej, Francis Román, and Maike Mia Höhne on these topics and more.
Darunee Terdtoontaveedej is a curator and cultural programmer based in The Hague. Formerly trained as an architect and designer, Terdtoontaveedej is interested in the intersection of alternative (his)stories, creative practices, and cinema. She is a co-founder of Non Native Native, a cultural platform which looks into the Asian creative landscape in the Netherlands through the lens of outsiders from within. She has programmed at festivals and institutions such as CinemAsia Film Festival (Amsterdam), International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Sinema Transtopia (Berlin), Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film (Singapore), and Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), and in 2023, she was a jury member of the Teddy Award at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Francis Román is a Ecuadorian-American writer, director, and creative. She’s the Senior Film & TV Festival Programming Manager and leads the Shorts Programming at SXSW. She has a passion for film and event production. She co-founded The Direct Line production company. She also co-hosts and produces How to Texas, a podcast spotlighting crew in the Texas film industry. Making art with friends and watching films brings her immense joy and she would love to do it forever.
Maike Mia Höhne is a German film director, film curator, professor of film, mother of two children. She lives and works in Hamburg. From 2007 to 2019, she played a key role in shaping the profile of the short film section Berlinale Shorts at the Berlin International Film Festival as curator and director. In 2019, she took over as artistic director at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Since 2019, she has been a professor at the University of Applied Science Europe at the Hamburg Campus in the Department of Art & Design for the Film program.
with Koo Chia Meng and Boo Junfeng
Sun 9 Jul, 3pm – 4.30pm (SGT) via Zoom REGISTER HERE
Delve into the casting process from the perspective of the casting director and director in this session with Koo Chia Meng and Boo Junfeng. What are the differences between casting for short films, feature films, TV, and commercial works? What are the challenges of casting and how do you create conducive spaces for actors to achieve their best performances on set?
Trained as a filmmaker, Koo Chia Meng co-founded his production company Fiction Shore in 2013, and continues to develop content with collaborators and artists for the film and theatre industries. In addition to directing short films which have travelled to regional film festivals, Chia Meng was also Casting Director for Singapore feature films such as Boo Junfeng’s Apprentice (2016), Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), as well as He Shuming’s Ajoomma (2022).
Boo Junfeng has written and directed 2 feature films and several award-winning short films. Boo’s works often humanize large topics such as identity, memory and sexuality, using personal and intimate narratives. Apprentice premiered in 2016 at Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section and has since travelled to and won awards at more than 80 film festivals around the world. In 2017, it was Singapore’s official entry to the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category. Sandcastle, his debut feature film, was the first Singapore film invited to Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics’ Week.
In 2008, he became the inaugural recipient of the McNally Award for Excellence in the Arts – the valedictorian honour of Lasalle College of the Arts. He was also accorded the Young Artist Award (2009) and the Singapore Youth Award (2011) by the Government of Singapore. In 2018 and 2021, he served as Creative Director for Singapore’s National Day Parade. He is also presently the Chairperson of the Board of Singapore International Film Festival.
How to join the online events:
1. Please register via the links above. You will receive an email with the Zoom link, confirming your spot in the sessions.
2. Objectifs will ‘photograph’ (e.g. screenshots) and audio/video record this online discussion for the purposes of documentation. We require participants to enter the Zoom call using the same name they have registered with so we may check against the registration list. You may subsequently change your username and switch off your device’s camera if you would prefer not to be photographed or recorded. We will make an announcement about this before we start any documentation.
3. Objectifs is committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive space for this online discussion. By registering for this session, participants agree to abide by the following guidelines:
- Treat all people with courtesy and respect.
- Harassment/discrimination of sexual, physical, vocal, emotional or any other nature based on gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion are not appropriate.
Related events
27 to 29 Jul 2023
FreshTake! Screening
Find out more about the films and get your tickets here.
Stay tuned for more events held in conjunction with the Short Film Incubator 2023.