NYFA 2021 Results: Animation Films Stand Tall In the Student Category at NYFA 20212 min read

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For the first time since its inception, animation films and filmmakers from the student category received the most awards. Calleen Koh’s To Kill the Birds and The Bees has won the Best Art Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Original Music awards while Wong Shi Teng, Hana Lee and Gloria Yeo won the Best Director award for Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu. The top animation award from the student category went to Yeow Su Xian for Full Circle.

Live action films, on the other hand, won the most awards from Best Sound Design to Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Original Music for the Open Youth category.

From the Open Youth Category, Vikneshwaran Silva’s Dark Light emerged as the biggest winner, nabbing the Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Actor awards.

Hosted by *SCAPE, an organisation that supports the development of Singaporean youths, NYFA awards youth filmmakers and films for 23 different categories, including Best Actress and Best Actor.

NYFA also presents its third Youth Inspiration Award recipient to producer Tan Si En. The award is given to recognise and honour a young industry professional who has made exemplary contributions towards the filmmaking industry in Singapore and is committed to nurturing the next generation of filmmakers.

Si En, who is the winner of NYFA 2020 Best Live Action Award from the Open Youth category, produced Anthony Chen’s Wet Season and Kirsten Tan’s POP AYE. She has also founded Momo Film Co, which has since produced award-winning short film projects that have been screened at major festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival.

Most recently, she spearheaded the Objectifs short film incubator and Momo Distribution Grant. Si En was also involved at the NYFA Conference this year where she hosted a workshop on how youths can market their short films.

For the full list of winners, head on over to NYFA’s website.

The results of the NYFA 2021 was announced via a Facebook livestream on 24 July 2021.