ScreenSingapore: Philippines Projects Take Top Prizes at SAFF Market

Naman Ramachandran

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Projects from the Philippines took away the top prizes awarded Friday at the conclusion of Screen Singapore’s Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market. The event is part of the Singapore Media Festival.

The winners included director J.P. Habac’s musical comedy drama “Golden” about homeless gay seniors who reunite to perform as drag queens to pay for a new home; and Kim Zuniga and Sandro Del Rosario’s sci-fi fantasy “Indigo Children,” where a boy temporarily develops superhuman abilities after stealing an alien device.

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TBA Studios for “Golden” and Wanderstruck Film Production for “Indigo Children” both received the RED Award, a camera loan package valued at SGD20,000 ($14,700). “Golden” also won the KL Post / SuperNova Award, a $14,700 post-production prize, while “Indigo Children” took home the 108 Media Award, a $20,000 distribution prize.

Rising Filipino star filmmaker Mikhail Red’s sci-fi action project “Quantum Suicide,” received the ACE Pictures Award, a production prize of $10,000.

Singapore’s Jacen Tan won the Salt Media Award, a development grant of $5,000 for comedy/drama “Basketcase.”

The AV8 Awards, training prizes worth $3,700 each, were won by Malaysia’s Feisal Azizuddin for drama “Angkat” and Indonesia’s Dinna Jasanti for cultural family drama “Watermelon.”

The winners were selected from a pool of 85 entries from 18 countries.

The SAFF Project Market is jointly produced by Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA) and Ties That Bind: Asia/Europe Producers Workshop, in conjunction with ScreenSingapore.

“This year’s edition surpassed our expectations, not only from the quality of projects at the market, but also from the buy-in from the regional industry players,” said SAAVA executive director Justin Deimen.

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