These are twenty short films you shouldn’t miss at the SeaShorts Film Festival which will take place from September 21 – 25, 2022 at the Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

An old man who’s trapped in his past, stole the army uniform to chase away the ghosts that terrorize his long nights. (SeaShorts 2022)

It is the day that the Blessed Virgin of Cotta will return to its home in the city. It is also the day that Historia, a young novice nun, will take her vows. Her friend, Criselda, who is suffering from an insomnia that slowly erases her memories, is about to hear the execution of her mother on the same day. While their lives are about to change, they both defy the day with their mundane desires. It is not a coincidence that all these happen on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. (SeaShorts 2022)

After the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, a girl from Earth is contacted by another fellow human from a parallel universe. The two exchange the state of their world only through a phone call. Without the presence of physicality and beyond the reach of light, how will we, as humans, connect? (SeaShorts 2022)

February 1st 2021: the military staged a coup in the republic of Myanmar. Through the portraits of two women filmmakers, one Burmese the other French, who have both witnessed the country in a very different light, this visual documentary explores through a travel diary their reflection toward art, revolution and freedom. (SeaShorts 2022)

The Girl is dead. No one can even see her, and she has lost her memory. She wanted to be alive again, but it did not happen. On another side of the city, a foreign killer is hunting a drug dealer named “Mrs. Kao”. Through the manipulation of fate, The Killer meets The Girl, and he is the first person who can see her. (SeaShorts 2022)

The third film in an ongoing series of works about memory, diaspora and decoloniality, Golden Jubilee is a lush and ghostly look at questions of heritage, culture, and the remnants of history in Goa through the filmmaker’s tangled family history. (SeaShorts 2022)

A couple celebrates their anniversary in a Discord call. They began daydreaming about their plans and ambitions, and as things became harmoniously gripping, one of them sheds tears and unfolds an unexpected truth. (SeaShorts 2022)

The world is about to end. Maya is forced to go home to the province of Zambales. There, she confronts her childhood house that terrorizes her as frogs rain outside. (SeaShorts 2022)

Whisperings of a soul reincarnating from one life to another, sometimes into forgotten forms, sometimes into water, moving through many landscapes, cultures and cycles of growth and decay. (SeaShorts 2022)

Mainly shot in the peripheral areas of the ever-expanding Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri, Thailand, Notes from the Periphery interrogates the notion of territoriality, globalized networks, and ownership through fragmented relations of the affected sites and communities nearby, shipping containers that become a policing tool, and the life cycle of a barnacle. (SeaShorts 2022)

A man and a woman are talking online. A divorced novelist and an up-and-coming actress. They seem to be a couple. The actress is venting because the play she was in has been cancelled because of Covid. The novelist consoles her but seems to be looking for a chance to tell her something. Then suddenly a strange young woman barges into their conversation…(SeaShorts 2022)

In the middle of the pandemic, Ara and Hiro explore an online world map for the first time in search of adventure and happiness. Along the places they visit, they talk about the beautiful mountains in the north, the lack of roads, and accessibility to school, and Hiro’s dream of one day becoming president. In their last attempt at finding happiness, they go to the place where every child only dreams of going–only to be met again with the disappointment and reality of yet another power cut, holding them back from their brief chance at finding Happiness, even in the world of pretend. (SeaShorts 2022)

Vibol and his brother Kea sell noodles on a motorized cart every night on the streets of Phnom Penh. They often face troublesome threats from gangsters and thieves, even if these very people are their only customers. As the city is growing around them, they consider their unstable income and imagine a different future. (SeaShorts 2022)

A Malaysian female filmmaker dreamt of making the first feature documentary for theatrical release in her country. After four years of struggles, her film premiered with glowing reviews. But soon after, she lost her job. This documentary reveals her deeply personal and harrowing filmmaking journey of enduring sexual harassment, bullying and misogyny. (SeaShorts 2022)

Malaysia is like summer all the year around, it is a synonym of hot and sultry. Xin Yee, a teenage girl who has a rebellious soul, and crashing on Ah Kit. Life in a small town is like a prison, they pursue all the way to live unrestrained. (SeaShorts 2022)

As the Burmese legend unfolds of the giant crocodile Nga Moe Yeik – the namesake of this beautiful if eerie-looking creek – some of the people who use this branch of the Yangon River voice their modern-day environmental concerns about one of the city’s iconic waterways. (SeaShorts 2022)

In 2015, in the aftermath of the world’s greatest financial sham, a Malaysian child found solace and guidance from an unlikely figurehead. The docu-fiction uses the juxtaposition of its namesake as a jumping-off point to create a highly evocative odyssey through the Malaysian youth consciousness. (SeaShorts 2022)3

With the use of a phone recording and Google Maps found images, the film recreates the scene of two hit-and-run accidents that happened in 2020, and also ten years ago, 2010. By looking at the moment and trauma of losing a loved one, the piece looks into the validity of online/personal archival images, how images are uploaded, downloaded and stored digitally, memorized as well as forgotten in one’s head.

On the final day of her 13 year-old daughter’s funeral, the young girl’s mysterious death is still haunting the mother’s mind. She needs to find the answer for herself. (SeaShorts 2022)

Cheng, a Chinese university dorm student, wants to smoke but his lighter does not work. Therefore, he strikes up a conversation with his Malay Muslim dormmate to ask for one. They then come to understand each other’s cultures through their interactions. (SeaShorts 2022)

For more information, please visit: https://seashorts.org/