(BEIJING – 20 June 2023) Recognising the greater need to increase awareness of scam prevention, Malaysia’s SunStrong Entertainment organised the Scam Prevention Short Film Contest which concluded with an awards ceremony in Beijing, China recently, where a total of US$128,000 (RM590,656) was awarded to winning entries, including a number of Malaysian-made works.
The international contest co-organised by China’s Horizon Corporate Volunteer Consultancy (HCVC) kicked off in November last year and received a total of 59 entries and 29 entries for the Open Category and Student Category, respectively. Ten entries were shortlisted for each category.
Themed “Contribute Your Talent To Prevent Scam”, the contest also marks a friendly engagement between the people of Malaysia and China in the arts for a common cause, further demonstrated by performances of Malay traditional dances and Chinese fan dance at the ceremony.
SunStrong Entertainment founder Jment Lim, who is also one of the judges, says, “These works not only show the creativity and talent of the contestants but also the significance of this contest as we get to see that the society at large is concerned about the prevalence of scams, as well as everyone’s enthusiasm and devotion for the public interest.”
He remarked that the contest’s effort to fight scams does not end with it as the winning entries will be made available on major social media platforms and the company’s website, hoping that these works will continue to play a role in preventing scams.
“We may not completely stop scams from happening, but we can make an effort to prevent as many tragedies as possible,” he says.
HCVC founder and chief executive officer Wang Zhongping commended SunStrong Entertainment for putting together this innovative initiative that benefits society at large.
He says, “I would like to thank Jment Lim for his strong support and everyone else who has dedicated themselves throughout this contest to allow the process to run smoothly. If it were up to me, all shortlisted works deserve to receive an award.
Although there have been stumbling blocks at the onset leading up to the award ceremony, we get to see through to the end with perseverance. We will continue to utilise the medium of short films as a tool to raise public awareness.”
For the Student Category, the first prize of US$5,000 (RM23,073) went to A Forever Promise (China) which centres around a young graduate who ended up as a job scam victim, while the second prize, Got Trapped (Malaysia) and third prize, Sink (Malaysia) were awarded US$3,000 (RM13,844) and US$1,500 (RM6,922), respectively.
The seven winning entries of the US$500 (RM2,307.25) Excellence Award are Malaysia’s The Distant Job, Got Trapped, The Untouchable Sight, Catherine’s Love Story and Anti Fraud Operation; China’s The Naked Price and If.
As for the Open Category, Help (China) which tells the story of a phone scam victim, bagged the first prize of US$50,000 (RM230,725).
Coming in second is Bad Days (Malaysia) which won US$20,000 (RM92,290) while Scripted (Malaysia) came in third to win US$10,000 (RM46,145). Thanking the judges for the recognition, the Malaysian winners say that this inspires them to put out greater works in the future.
It was a proud moment when Malaysian entries won every Excellence Award for this category. All seven – Putih Hati, Love Chess, I’m Here For You, Susan, Money Tree, Bungkam and Desire were awarded US$5,000 (RM23,073) each.
Open Category winners get to submit their film proposals to SunStrong Entertainment for an opportunity to receive a grant of up to US$1 million (RM4.61 million) to fulfil their dream of making a feature film.
Golden Horse Award-winning Malaysian filmmaker Chong Keat Aun who sits on the judging panel noted that most entries are based on human trafficking stories, which shows the extent of this worrying matter. He shares that there are bound to be challenged when telling a story within a ten-minute time frame. To his surprise, all these entries took into account the mobile viewing experience for viewers.
Another judge, Oscar-winning Chinese-American documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang, sang praises of the entries during the selection process and was amazed by many students’ entries which use news broadcasting as a mode of storytelling and even cast their friends due to limited resources.
Also on the panel are Shanxi Film Academy director Jia Yue, Leopard Change Academy director Zhang Dadou and Nanhai Academy of the Arts and Technology honorary dean Zhou Shixing.
The short films are available for viewing at https://sseshortfilmcontest.com/Gallery
