After sixteen years running, the short film competition returns with a new theme

BMW Group Malaysia has brought back their well known, prestigious short film competition, BMW Shorties. Returning for the sixteenth year, this year’s theme, RE:IMAGINE will be running from now until 28 October 2022.

The aim for BMW Shorties has always been to challenge local content creators and filmmakers to be able to reimagine storytelling in a way that defies convention and this year’s challenge is to do that in a post-pandemic environment. We’ll let BMW explain what they mean by this below.

BMW Group Malaysia’s Head of Corporate Communications Sashi Ambi, said, “During the Covid-19 pandemic, we found ourselves reimagining our role in sustainability at BMW Group Malaysia. This brought about new ways in contributing to resource conservation, emission reduction, as well as economic and social responsibility.”

He added, “With the BMW Shorties as our longest-running cultural initiative in Malaysia, we want to inspire this pivot in the same spirit, within the local filmmaking scene. It is our hope that content creators and filmmakers in the country will be able to RE:IMAGINE storytelling in an unconventional yet meaningful way as we enter a new era of content creation, post-pandemic.”

This year’s BMW Shorties short film competition features four new esteemed judges joining veteran judge Saw Teong Hin. They are director Nadiah Hamzah (Motif), director Jeany Amir (Bu, Kasih Suci), screenwriter and producer Anwari Ashraf (Paskal and Polis Evo) and filmmaker Joon Goh (Wanita Terindah and Sitik Tok).

Like previous year’s competition the grand prize winner will be rewarded with a Production Grant. This year’s BMW Shorties is offering RM80,000 to the talented winner to produce their film.

Fancy yourself a talented filmmaker? Submit your short film now at bmwshorties.com.my and see if you can be the next big thing in Malaysian Cinema.