PHNOM PENH: During the 3rd Cambodia National Short Film Festival (CNSFF), it was important for the organizers to help push local filmmakers in the right direction.
Under the slogan “Short Films as a Stepping Stone to Feature Films,” the festival hosted the first pitch meeting for filmmakers in Cambodia. A panel of judges were invited to ask the filmmakers questions and help refine their ideas to make their future films a success.
There were five pitches made at the session hosted at CineHub above the Cambodia Film Commission.
Virak Vinich, an actress, was the first to pitch. She said she has been working on her script for quite some time, and when she heard about the Pitching Session, she decided it was time for her to take a chance.
“I’m just in the process of finishing the third draft of the script and I saw this [pitching session] and I thought it was a great opportunity to try and pitch [my idea] and see how my script [is received, see what] my project needs and what kind of feedback [I can receive] to continue, and also to get sponsors when [the film is] ready to be made,” said Vinich.
One of the invited judges, Leak Lyda, CEO and Founder of LD Entertainment, said that he was very interested to hear all the unique voices from emerging filmmakers. As a producer and director, he understands how important it is to have good scripts and concepts. He looked forward to seeing which scripts were good, not only for short films, but potentially for feature films as well.
“We need unique stories, different [stories which] can be done [properly and potentially] converted from short films to feature films,” said Lyda.
Cedric Eloy, the Director of the Cambodia International Film Festival, said that he believes coming to this pitching session will help local filmmakers as it is an exercise that will help them be ready to pitch for potential partners and sponsors, not just locally but also internationally.
“So [the pitching session is] really a way to improve production, quality of projects, so that both nationally or internationally, these projects can happen, can be made with enough partners, and be made with good quality standards,” said Eloy.
Pok Borak, the Director of the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, told EAC News at a press conference that this Pitching session is only the first of many and will be part of an ongoing project from the Ministry to help budding filmmakers cultivate and refine their ideas. They plan to host a pitching session every three months.
The 3rd Cambodia National Short Film Festival was held from 16-20 December 2022. This year, the festival received 35 entries and gave awards to eight filmmakers.
The top prize and Gold award for Best Cambodian Short Film went to Sothea Ines for ‘Life.Love.Bliss.’, while the Silver award went to Sang Chanvisal for ‘The Love You Gave’, and the Bronze award went to Vong Panhavon for ‘The Keyboard’.
