New Film Mentorship Programme Will See Internationally-Renowned Filmmakers Mentor Past NYFA Winners2 min read

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) is celebrating National Mentoring Month this January with the introduction of its mentorship initiative – the Film Facilitation Fund programme. Organised by *SCAPE and conceptualised by Huang Junxiang, NYFA 2020’s Youth Inspiration Award winner, the programme will see five internationally renowned filmmakers mentoring five past year NYFA winners.

The Film Facilitation Fund programme aims to connect youth filmmakers with industry veterans in a bid to foster their professional development through the sharing of real world experiences.

These industry veterans include Mike Wiluan, co-producer of 2019’s hit Hollywood film Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and director of action film Buffalo Boys (2018), as well as Daniel Jeannette, the animation director of 2006 film Happy Feet.

Other mentors include Amanda Neil Eu, director of award-winning short films which were screened in international festivals including Venice, Locarno, and Clermont-Ferrand; Jeremy Chua, Singaporean film producer who has co-produced international feature films by K. Rajagopal; and Soraya Prapapan, who was production assistant for the Palme D’or-winning film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010).

Over the next three-months, mentees will discover new approaches to filmmaking over one-on-one meetings with their mentors. The mentors will guide the filmmakers from scripting to completion, imparting insights from their years of experience in the given genre.

Each mentor-mentee pair will receive a budget of $10,000 to produce a short film in a specific genre – action, drama, horror, animation, and comedy – that will be screened exclusively at the annual NYFA Conference come April 2021.

Some of the mentees include Alistair Quak – mentored by Mike Wiluan – a film director whose works have been featured at Cannes Film Festival, National Youth Film Awards, amongst other festivals, and Tan Siyou – mentored by Amanda Neil Eu – a Singaporean filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She is working on her first feature, AMOEBA, which is in development at SEAFIC, and was awarded the Most Promising Project at the Southeast Asian Film Lab.

“To commemorate NYFA’s 7th anniversary this year, we are excited to introduce the Film Facilitation Fund programme to our youth filmmakers,” said Ivy Lim, Executive Director of *SCAPE. “It is with great joy and satisfaction to kickstart an extension programme that will help our young filmmakers hone their skills and prepare them for the future.”

In the coming month, NYFA will also be calling for submissions the 7th edition of NYFA.

Image Credit: *SCAPE