BUZZ LIST: Southeast Asia Projects In The Pipeline 2024

The list below highlights noteworthy Southeast Asian film projects that were completed and premiered at international film festivals in 2024. Nationality of the director is in brackets after their names, but nationality of the projects is harder to determine as most are multi-territory co-productions.

UPDATE October 14: MA - Cry Of Silence directed by Myanmar's The Maw Naing, picked up one of the New Currents Awards at this year's Busan International Film Festival, while Tale Of The Land [PICTURED ABOVE], by Indonesia's Loeloe Hendra Komara, won the FIPRESCI Award. Further details of both films are below.

UPDATE August 6: Antoinette Jadaone’s Sunshine from the Philippines and Tumpal Tampubolon’s Crocodile Tears from Indonesia received their world premieres in the Centrepiece section of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

UPDATE July 23: Stranger Eyes, directed by Singapore's Yeo Siew Hua, premiered in competition at Venice film festival. The film is produced by Akanga Film Asia (Singapore), Volos Films (Taiwan), Films de Force Majeure (France) and US-based Cinema Inutile. Phantosmia, the latest film from Philippines auteur Lav Diaz, premiered in Venice Out of Competition.

UPDATE July 22: Vietnamese filmmaker Duong Dieu Linh's Don't Cry Butterfly won the grand prize and the award for most innovative feature in Critics' Week at this year's Venice film festival. The film, about a housewife who resorts to casting a spell to win back her cheating husband, is produced by Vietnam's Kalei Films, Singapore's Momo Film Co, Fusee in the Philippines and Indonesia's KawanKawan Media.

UPDATE July 17: Regretfully At Dawn, directed by Thailand's Sivaroj Kongsakul, was selected for the New Directors competition at San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film is produced by Pimpaka Towira of Thailand's Extra Virgin, with Lai Weijie of Singapore's E&W Films as co-producer. Thailand's Diversion is on board as international sales agent.

UPDATE JULY 9: Nelicia Low has won Best Director in the Crystal Globe competition at Karlovy Vary Film Festival for Pierce, produced by Singapore's Potocol, Taiwan's Flash Forward Entertainment and Poland's Harine Films.

CROCODILE TEARS
Dir: Tumpal Tampubolon (Indonesia)
Prods: Mandy Marahimin, Anthony Chen
Prod cos: Tanakhir Films (Indonesia), Acrobates Films (France), Giraffe Pictures (Singapore)
Int'l sales: Cercamon
Synopsis: Johan and his mother live hidden from the outside world in a crocodile park. When Johan falls in love with Arumi, and proposes she comes to live with them, his mother resents the intrusion and starts to hatch other plans.
Status: Completed, premiered in Centrepiece, Toronto International Film Festival 2024

CU LI NEVER CRIES
Dir: Pham Ngoc Lan (Vietnam)
Prods: Phan Dang Di, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Claire Lajoumard, Teh Su Ching, Lai Weijie, Verona Meier
Prod cos: DNY Vietnam Productions (Vietnam), Epicmedia Productions (Philippines), Acrobates Films (France), Purple Tree Pictures (Singapore), Ape&Bjørn (Norway)
Synopsis: A surreal comedy about widowed Mrs Nguyen, who travels to Berlin to receive her inheritance: her estranged German husband’s ashes and his pet pygmy slow loris.
Status: Completed, premiered in Berlin film festival 2024

DIAMONDS IN THE SAND
Dir: Janus Victoria (Philippines)
Prods: Lorna Tee, Dan Villegas, Masumi Soga
Prod cos: Paperheart (Malaysia), Project 8 Projects (Philippines), Spanic Films (Japan)
Exec prods: Nathan Studios, CMB Film Services (Philippines), IS Field, Shozo Ichiyama (Japan)
Synopsis: A divorced and demoted salaryman (Lily Franky) living in Tokyo is afraid of ‘kodokushi’, a phenomenon where elderly people die alone and are not discovered for months after their death. He abandons it all and heads to Manila, because he’s been led to believe that nobody is ever lonely in The Philippines.
Status: Completed, premiered at Tokyo Filmex 2024

DON’T CRY, BUTTERFLY
Dir: Duong Dieu Linh (Vietnam)
Prods: Tan Si En, Wilfredo C. Manalang, Nguyen Mai Ka
Prod cos: Kalei Films (Vietnam), Momo Film Co (Singapore), Fusee (Philippines), KawanKawan Media (Indonesia), Pupa Films (Philippines)
Synopsis: A middle-aged housewife discovers her husband’s affair and decides to cast a spell, hoping she can voodoo him back into love.
Status: Completed, won two awards in Venice Critics' Week 2024

INDERA
Dir: Woo Ming Jin (Malaysia)
Prods: Woo Ming Jin, Aron Koh
Prod cos: Lomo Pictures (Malaysia), Greenlight Pictures (Malaysia)
Int'l sales: Parallax
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of the violent Memali Incident in 1985, this psychological thriller is about a visiting handyman and his young daughter who experience mysterious visions in a remote village amid the fatal police raid against fundamentalists.
Status: Completed, premiered at Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) 2024

MA - CRY OF SILENCE
Dir: The Maw Naing (Myanmar)
Prods: The Maw Naing, Youngjeong Oh, Jeremy Chua, Charlotte Guenin, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid, Ingrid Lill Høgtun
Prod cos: One Point Zero (Myanmar), Plus Point One (Korea), Potocol (Singapore), Massala Productions (France), DUOfilm (Norway)
Int'l sales: Alpha Violet
Synopsis: A young Burmese woman, Mi-Thet, moves to the big city to work in a garment factory to support her family. She is forced to confront traumas in her past and in the desperate city life around her during a labor strike.
Status: Completed, won New Currents award at Busan International Film Festival 2024

MONGREL
Dir: Chiang Wei Liang (Singapore)
Prods: Lai Weijie, Lynn Chen, Chu Yun-ting
Co-prods: Marie Dubas, Elizabeth Wijaya
Prod cos: E&W Films (Singapore), Le Petit Jardin (Taiwan), Deuxième Ligne Films (France)
Int’l sales: Alpha Violet
Synopsis: Oom has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.
Status: Completed, won a Camera d'Or Special Mention in Cannes Directors Fortnight 2024

PHANTOSMIA
Dir: Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Cast: Ronnie Lazaro, Hazel Orencio, Janine Gutierrez
Synopsis: Hilarion Zabala’s mysterious olfactory problem has recurred; a psychiatrist suspects it to be a lingering case of phantosmia, a phantom smell, and possibly caused by trauma, a deep psychological fracture. One recommended radical process to cure the ailment was that Hilarion must go back and deal with the darkest currents of his past life in the military service. Reassigned in the very remote Pulo Penal Colony, he must also confront the horrific realities of his present situation.
Status: Completed, premiered at Venice film festival Out Of Competition 2024

PIERCE
Dir: Nelicia Low (Singapore)
Prods: Sam Chua, Jeremy Chua, Patrick Mao Huang, Izabela Igel, John M. Lo
Prod cos: Potocol (Singapore), Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan), Harine Films (Poland)
Int'l sales: Magnify
Synopsis: When his beloved but dangerous older brother is released from prison, high school fencer Zi-Jie believes he is innocent and goes behind their mother’s back to help him, only to realise the brother he has idealised might only be a fantasy.
Status: Completed, won Best Director in the Crystal Globe Competition of Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2024

REGRETFULLY AT DAWN
Dir: Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand)
Prods: Pimpaka Towira, Lai Weijie (co-producer)
Prod cos: Extra Virgin, E&W Films (co-production)
Int'l sales: Diversion
Synopsis: This small-town drama centres on an old man, a young girl and a soldier who begin to discover the beauty of their life before it comes to an end.
Status: Completed, selected for San Sebastian Film Festival New Directors competition 2024

SOME NIGHTS I FEEL LIKE WALKING
Dir: Petersen Vargas (Philippines)
Prods: Alemberg Ang, Jade Francis Castro, Anthony Chen, Tan Si En
Prod cos: Daluyong Studios, Ten17p Film, (Philippines), Giraffe Pictures (Singapore), Dolce Vita Films (France)
Int'l sales: Parallax
Synopsis: A rich teenage runaway, Zion, is looking for a place to belong and falls in with a group of hustlers. When the youngest dies of an overdose, he joins a mission to fulfil the dead boy’s final wish: to go home.
Status: Completed, premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024

SPIRIT WORLD
Dir: Eric Khoo (Singapore)
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Masaaki Sakai, Yutaka Takenouchi, Jun Fukubi
Prod cos: m.i.movies, Zhao Wei Films, Fourier Films, Knockonwood, Wild Orange Artists
Int’l sales: Goodfellas
Synopsis: Legendary singer Claire flies to Japan for a final sold-out concert. When the show ends, so does Claire’s life on earth. But an unexpected new life in the spirit world – where she will be guided by Yuzo, one of her biggest fans – awaits.
Status: Completed, premiered as closing film at Busan International Film Festival 2024

STRANGER EYES
Dir: Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore)
Prods: Fran Borgia, Stefano Centini, Jean-Laurent Csinidis, Alex C. Lo
Prod cos: Akanga Film Asia (Singapore), Volos Films (Taiwan), Films de Force Majeure (France), Cinema Inutile (US)
Int’l sales: Playtime
Synopsis: After the unexplained disappearance of their baby daughter, a young couple receives strange videos and realises someone has been filming their daily life, even in their most intimate moments. The police set up surveillance to arrest the voyeur they suspect of the kidnapping. But the family starts to crumble as secrets emerge under the scrutiny of eyes watching them from all sides.
Status: Completed, premiered in competition at Venice film festival 2024

SUNSHINE
Dir: Antoinette Jadaone (Philippines)
Cast: Maris Racal
Prods: Bianca Balbuena, Dan Villegas
Prod cos: Anima, Project 8 Projects
Synopsis: A young gymnast discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs, she meets a mysterious girl who eerily talks and thinks like her.
Status: Completed, premiered in Centrepiece, Toronto International Film Festival 2024

TALE OF THE LAND
Dir: Loeloe Hendra (Indonesia)
Prod: Yulia Evina Bhara, Amerta Kusuma
Prod co: KawanKawan Media (Indonesia)
Co-prod: Armi Rae Cacanindin
Co-prod co: Cinematografica (Philipines)
Synopsis: An indigenous Dayak girl in Borneo, traumatised by her parents’ death, is cursed to not touch land and lives on the water with her grandfather. After an unexpected loss, she chooses to stand on her own.
Status: Completed, won the FIPRESCI Award in New Currents at Busan International Film Festival 2024

VIET AND NAM
Dir: Truong Minh Quy (Vietnam)
Prods: Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Lai Weijie, Marie Dubas, Lorna Tee, Joost De Vries, Stefano Centini, Christian Jilka, Nguyễn Thị Xuân Trang
Prod cos: Epicmedia Productions Inc (Philippines), E&W Films (Singapore), Deuxième Ligne Films (France), An Original Picture (Netherlands), Volos Films Italia (Italy), Scarlet Visions (Germany), Lagi Limited (Vietnam)
Int’l sales: Pyramide International
Synopsis: Before leaving Vietnam in a container alongside future migrants, Nam, a young miner, seeks to find the remains of his father, a soldier killed during the civil war. But Nam’s lover, Việt, wishes they could stay forever in the depths of the coal mine.
Status: Completed, premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard 2024

BUZZ LIST: Southeast Asia Projects In The Pipeline 2025

BUZZ LIST: Southeast Asia Projects In The Pipeline 2023