PHNOM PENH: The Chaktomuk Short Film Festival (CSFF) has finally announced the winners of the short film competitions! It has been a long road, but everyone who participated in the festival has expressed high hopes for the future of the film industry in Cambodia.

It has been a trying year for CSFF, as there were many issues with human resources, especially volunteers, and with funding, but the festival’s director, Sum Sithen, said he is thankful for all the volunteers and sponsors who stood by the festival until the very end. 

He said it is very rewarding to see the short films return to the big screen, from both new and experienced filmmakers, and especially those who have already been recognized internationally. He added that he is motivated to continue expanding the festival’s partnerships abroad, in order to showcase the talents of Cambodian filmmakers not only to local audiences but also on the international stage.

He said, “When we partner up with certain festivals, that means we increase the chance for them [the filmmakers] to be recognized on the international stage… Through our festival, we kind of curate the content already, so they [international festival partners] will tend to accept newly selected films or new finalist films from us.”    

In the past two years, CSFF has sent short film finalists to international partner festivals in Pakistan, China, and South Korea.

The closing ceremony on 28 November featured a special screening of Jean-Baptiste Phou’s short film, ‘My Mother’s Tongue,’ following a month-long stint at Java Creative Cafe in Toul Tom Pong as part of the Photo Phnom Penh Festival. Jean-Baptiste said he was excited to show his film at CSFF because of the different multi-media format his film presents, which he thinks is important for young Cambodian filmmakers to see.

He said, “It’s something quite unusual for them [young filmmakers] and I really hope they can engage with the work because it’s not a typical film that you shoot with a camera and you edit. It has a different process. I hope that by seeing this other type of work, people here can feel something new. … What I’m more excited about is to hear what the Cambodian youth have to say through films.”

Ly Polen, CSFF’s 2013 winner, and Chap Somchanrith, CSFF’s 2015 winner, were the jurors who selected the local short film winners this year. According to Ly Polen, the evaluation process was difficult, as he believed the submissions showed a lack of progress made in the acting and screenwriting departments. However, he said that the jurors were still able to focus on analyzing the cinematic language used in all the films.

He said, “We put emphasis on the art of emotional portrayal and storytelling through the visual arts and sound, which is known as… [the] ‘cinema[tic] language’. Every day, we use language to communicate with each other and express our emotions and way of thinking. For films, there is also a language.”

Second Place Winner, San Danech, with her film ‘Sunrise in My Mind,’ said she did not expect to win anything as her film presents a more unusual way of storytelling, but she is still very honored to have won.

She said, “Totally unexpected because I think that with this short film, it is not something [that follows the] usual [way] of storytelling. So mainly, I focused [on] feelings, how to make a film with the intention of feel[ing] something, so I’m not sure the general audience would relate to this film. So that’s why it was really surprising and I’m very honored to receive this award.”

As for Sok Chanrado and Vann Kongkea’s ‘Sound of the Night,’ the duo were thrilled to have won the top award of Best Cambodian Short Film and be recognized in their homeland. ‘Sound of the Night’ has already won multiple awards in international festivals, including in Italy (Best Actor), Brazil (Special Jury Mention), and Iceland (Best Short Film).

The directors said they started working on the short film at the end of 2018 and finally completed it at the end of 2021, when they were able to submit it to various festivals around the world. They said they are very thankful to their cast and crew who helped them make the film with next to nothing, allowing it to be recognized as the accomplished piece it is today. 

What they want to see the most is a supportive community in Cambodia because they do not want it to be necessary for local filmmakers to always seek outside help and potentially lose creative control over their work.

Chanrado said, “To be honest, I don’t really want money from outside the country. In my heart, if Cambodia has a community or sponsors, it’s better than for us to find [outside help]. If we ask [for outside help], they can change the storytelling, but if the story comes from us, we can [control the narrative.]”

Kongkea added, “Because when we make the film, we know how the film should be. But sometimes we make films depending on the client who provides the budget, and so it’s different from what we are doing. So when the film goes out, it’s not 100% ours. Sometimes, if it’s a good idea, we can put it in, but sometimes it isn’t good, but if we don’t follow [our client’s instructions], they can take away the money. So it’s difficult. If we all understand this industry and join together to help independent filmmakers like us, it will help the industry immensely… Create opportunities for the newer generation of filmmakers, just like us, who do not have money to make films, to find some place to get help to produce their films, like us.”

The issue of accommodating clients and struggling for creative control was actually explored in Ty Tepnimol’s short film, ‘Ms. Client,’ which won the Audience Award for Local Short Film. Other festival winners included: ‘Sacrifice’ by Thoung Sareth winning Special Jury Mention for Local Short Film, ‘Curupira and the Machine of Destiny’ by Janaina Wagner winning Best International Short Film, ‘Lili Alone’ by Zou Jing winning Audience Award for International Short Film, and ‘Domar’ by Alcibiade Cohen winning Special Jury Mention for International Short Film.

Janaina Wagner said, “I’m very happy that the film has been traveling internationally a lot. It means that even though many of the symbols are very obvious to Brazilian people because of the history of the country, but the film can still communicate and still [be] approachable by the people who do not have [that] context.”

Cinema allows people from different cultures, across continents, to connect with one another through unexpected shared experiences. Even if everyone does not speak the same language, the language of cinema still speaks to all and helps communicate stories across the world. 

As Cambodia’s film industry continues to grow, CSFF looks forward to promoting more local filmmakers on the international stage.