Cathay Motion Picture Awards 2013
by Parveen Maghera (photos: Cathay)
Four teams of passionate filmmakers walked away with cash prizes worth more than $44,000 at the Cathay Motion Picture 2013 Awards on Thursday.
First time participants, Team Ayam Man, clinched the Best Motion Picture Award for their film, Ayam Man, along with $15,000, the biggest filmmaking prize in Singapore. The 1st runner up, team Lawliepop Offset, received a cash prize of $8,000 for their film, Reality, while the 2nd runner up, team P2, received $5,000 for their film, Pause For Tomorrow. Additionally, the Viewers’ Choice Award was presented to team Redream Studios for their film, Child.
Each member of the winning teams also walked away with a one-year Cathay VIP card but that was not all. The winning teams received the golden opportunity to screen their films for four weeks at Cathay Cineplexes’ circuit right before the screening of the main feature films.
Moreover, all 15 motion pictures shortlisted will be featured at The Cathay Gallery for a month next year.
Compared to last year’s inaugural event, the competition saw a sharp increase in the total number of entries, from 49 to 109, with the youngest and oldest registrant at 17 and 59 years of age respectively. In commemoration of Cathay’s 78th anniversary, the entries were expected to be 78 seconds long and filmed within 78 hours while keeping to the theme, ‘Tomorrow’.
The judges that evening believed that this year’s competitors have raised the bar really high. Among them included Founder and Director of J Team Productions, Jack Neo, and Executive Producer of Industrial Light & Magic, Stuart McAra.
“I was generally looking for films that made me forget that they were [produced] by amateurs in a short phase of time,” Mr McAra said. The “majority of the films were totally… at that level.”
According to Mr McAra, one word to describe the filmmakers would be “adventurous”.
