We present the list of winners of the Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival, which will take place from September 3rd – 6th (2020), in Bangkok, Thailand.

About the festival:
The Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival 2020, organized by Thailand’s Ministry of Culture, aims to stimulate the economy through the film and video industry, and to lift the morale and spirits of professionals in the Thai filmmaking sector, as well as their Southeast Asian counterparts. The festival represents cooperation among ASEAN members in an effort to revive and drive forward the film industry of the region. This year, in addition to film screenings, they have launched two activities which invited filmmakers to submit their short films and feature-length projects: ASEAN Short Film Competition and SEAPITCH (Southeast Asian Project Pitch).

Best ASEAN Short Film

Xun, a Chinese migrant worker, falls in love with Chong, a Malaysian colleague at her warehouse job. Their relationship is like an endless dance of two jellyfish in the ocean, making ends meet with no end in sight. Until one day, Xun announces she is pregnant, which is a deportable offense, and the fates of Xun and Chong are altered forever.

Jury Prize

Stories told along the river about a woman who reunites with her ex-lover at a hydroelectric plant. Meanwhile, a young man travels downstream to a temple in search of a cure for his insomnia.

Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/435378416

Special Mention

“To Calm the Pig Inside” is a contemplation on the effects a typhoon leaves on a seaside city. Myths are woven in to try to understand how people cope with the devastation and trauma. A girl divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt revisiting this ravaged port city.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffVzhuWJGYU

SEAPITCH Award
Causeway, Director: Aw See Wee (Producer, Lim Shu Jia) – Malaysia
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, national borders are temporarily closed. Two migrant workers are stranded in Causeway happily, but realize they are strangers to their home in Malaysia.

Runner-up Prize
A Useful Ghost, Director: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Producer, Cattleya Paosrijaroen)- Thailand
Nat, a happily married woman, is forced to leave her marriage simply because she is dead. Being a dead person in contemporary society is very difficult. To make a living, Nat has to find a way to coexist peacefully with the living by becoming a useful ghost.

Special Mention:
Skin, Director: Tongpong Chantarangkul (Producer: Maenum Chagasik) – Thailand
Duen decides to follow the path her best friend Maprang took: to live a new life and work as a masseuse in Seoul. But after arriving there, Deun learns that her best friend has gone missing. While Deun is trying to find a lead to her missing best friend, she is gradually getting to know her regular client, Jee-un, a Korean female tattoo artist. When Jee-un visits the police for her car accident case, she finds out that the accident led not only to her own boyfriend’s death but also to the death of a yet unidentified person – Maprang. Jee-un realizes that Duen’s missing friend is now dead and it’s because of her.

Festival video 2020: