PURIN PICTURES ANNOUNCES
GRANT RECIPIENTS FOR SPRING 2019

May 1, 2019 - Bangkok

Bangkok-based film fund Purin Pictures has finalized the grantees for the Spring 2019 session.  After evaluation and discussion of the submissions, the reading committee chose three fiction and one documentary projects to receive a production grant and one documentary project to receive a post-production grant.

Production Grants (30,000 USD)

ANATOMY OF TIME (Thailand/France/Netherlands/Germany)
Director: Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Producer: Mai Meksawan
A drama shifting between the present and the past, following Mam, a general’s wife, as she reflects upon a life of loss, disappointment, and betrayal.

AJOOMA (Singapore/Korea)
Director: He Shuming, Producer: Tan Si En
A dramedy about a middle-aged Korean-drama obsessed widow from Singapore who travels to Seoul for the first time and promptly gets lost.

YUNI (Indonesia)
Director: Kamila Andini, Producer: Ifa Isfansyah
A drama about an Indonesian teenage girl who is faced with competing wedding proposals and realizes that her dreams are too big for her small world.

THE PEOPLE OUTSIDE (Philippines)
Director: Jewel Maranan, Producer: Jewel Maranan
A documentary following several characters in the hinterlands who struggle to reconcile their identity within Philippines society.

Post-Production Grants (50,000 USD in post-production services)

ASWANG (Philippines)
Director: Alyx Ayn Arumpac, Producer: Armi Rae Cacanindin
A documentary following the lives of people whose fates are intertwined as the state wages a brutal war against drugs and crime in the Philippines.

This Spring 2019 session saw an increase in overall applications from the last session. “The fact that we continue to see many strong projects from the Philippines and Singapore in particular tells us that these two countries have the most solid support structures for independent filmmaking within the region,” says Fund Director Aditya Assarat.

The first edition of SEAStudy, an academic study of the Southeast Asian independent film industry, was conducted by Purin Pictures in 2018. It was published and is available for free download on the Purin Pictures website. Continues Assarat, “The findings from SEAStudy are indeed reflected in the applications we have received for funding over the past few years.  To date, we have funded films from every Southeast Asian country with the exception of Laos, Myanmar, and Brunei. It’s our hope to see more projects from these countries in the coming years.”

Finally, Purin Pictures also recently transitioned to an open submissions format for film-related activities as well. This past Winter 2019 session, the funded events were the Archive Film Festival (Thailand), Autumn Meeting (Vietnam), SEA Shorts Film Festival (Malaysia), and Animistic Apparatus (Thailand). “Our funding programs are now evenly spread out within the calendar year with production grants in the spring and fall, and activities grants in the winter and summer,” says Fund Director Anocha Suwichakornpong.