SINGAPORE — A ghostly encounter with the spirits of Sang Nila Utama and Sir Stamford Raffles. A mother’s time-travelling padlock. A char kway teow hawker struggling with dementia. These three stories will be made into short films, but only one will emerge winner and be screened in Golden Village (GV) cinemas later this year.

These three story pitches emerged as finalists from almost 200 entries in a new grant scheme by GV. Earlier this year the GV25 Film Shorts initiative — which is part of the cinema exhibitor’s 25th-anniversary celebrations — called for entries centring around the theme Past, Present and Future.

Of the 200 entries received, eight were invited to present their ideas to a judging panel made of local directors Boris Boo and Kelvin Tong, President of the Singapore Film Society Kenneth Tan, YouTubers Tree Potatoes and GV’s Programming Director Sharanjit Kaur, earlier in June.

The three finalists were then shortlisted and given a cash grant of S$2,000 each to produce their short film within three months. The run time for each short film is capped at 10 minutes, and Boo, Tong and Tree Potatoes will also serve as mentors.

The finalists are Marcus Goh Peiqin, 34, a freelance writer and tuition teacher, The Apex Project team led by Goh Sijia, 26, and team Moonmen led by Joshuah Lim En, 22.


Goh said the initiative is “a great opportunity” that allowed him “to create something for the sake of art” outside of commercial work.


“The S$2,000 grant would be very helpful to provide some resources to ensure a certain production quality and standard. With the grant, I am looking at possibly hiring a higher profile actor or actress for the short film,” he added.

The winning film — to be decided by the panel of judges and public votes via social media — will be screened in GV cinemas across Singapore for free from Oct 12 to Nov 1, and the individual or team behind it will receive a cash prize of S$3,000.

“Golden Village has always been supportive of local film and nurturing local talent. GV25 Film Shorts was conceived for precisely this reason,” said Jolleen Lim, Assistant Marketing Manager of Golden Village, adding that the company was “thrilled” by the response to the initiative.