故事

Malaysian autistic story bags award at Alto Vicentino Film Festival

From Star Metro

15th Sept 2012

QUEK Shio Chuan, winner of the BMW Shorties short film competition in 2011, has been awarded the Best Short Film Award at the prestigious Alto Vicentino Film Festival in Santorso, Italy for the same film Guang.

It is the first Asian film to win an award at the festival.

“For Guang to be recognised with the Best Short Film Award at Alto Vicentino is extremely gratifying and a dream come true.

Beaming with pride: Quek is first Asian filmmaker to be honoured with Best Film Award at the Alto Vicentino Film Festival.

“I never expected that I would win such an honour. But the fact that the film is based on my own experiences with my brother who is autistic, makes everything all the more special,” said Quek.

His filmmaking career has rocketed to new heights since his success at the BMW Shorties.

Following Guang’s success, the young filmmaker’s talent continues to be in high demand and Quek’s directorial credits now includes the highly successful Hari Raya and Merdeka Strangers commercials for Petronas, and the Sparkle Project music video by New York-based local songstress Yuna.

“The BMW Shorties has opened new horizons for me, both professionally as well as creatively.

“My upcoming BMW Shorties funded production Sid & Barry is yet another career milestone which I am grateful for, as BMW has granted me complete creative freedom to explore my ideas to the fullest extent of my imagination,” added Quek.

In addition to the win at Alto Vicentino, Guang has also received awards for Best Film and Audience Choice Awards at the 4th Who Likes Short Shorts? Film Festival (USA), Best Film and Best Film – Alternate World Awards at the 10th Irpen Film Festival (Ukraine), Best Film Award at the 10th In The Palace Film Festival (Bulgaria), Best Direction and Best Cinemato-graphy Awards at the 4th Malta International Television Short Film Festival (Malta) as well as a host of ancillary awards at numerous other film festivals around the world.

Sharing in the joy of Quek’s success, BMW Group Malaysia corporate communications manager Sashi Ambi said: “The BMW Shorties has always been about providing Malaysians with the opportunity to showcase their talents to as wide an audience as possible. Malaysians have the talent and the voice to engage with world audiences. With his brilliant film Guang, Quek has managed to achieve this remarkable feat.”

Sashi added that BMW Group Malaysia continues to see tremendous potential in Quek and that the carmaker is looking forward to even greater things to come from the talented filmmaker.

“We hope that he will continue to work with us in encouraging more Malaysians to take up the challenge of making a short film and we look forward to his upcoming BMW Shorties funded production, Sid & Barry later this month.” said Sashi.

Sid & Barry is a short film that explores the theme of life, death and rebirth. The film will be premiering on Sept 27 at a special event hosted by BMW.

The 6th edition of the BMW Shorties is currently on-going and participants have until Oct 26 to submit their short films for a chance to win an RM75,000 production grant to make their next professional short film.

To find out more about the BMW Shorties, visit the official BMW Shorties Facebook page www.facebook.com/bmwshorties