Samsung Singapore recently announced Short & Sharp Mobile Film Festival 2021 Winners, with Veron Teng, 25, as the grand prize winner Short & Sharp, its inaugural mobile festival. Teng, who is currently a producer and editor at Singapore-based production house It’s Like Depth, edged out 14 finalists to emerge eventual winner of the contest. 

Short & Sharp Mobile Festival launched its call for entries earlier in February, it aimed to discover new-age storytellers and content makers who are passionate in telling stories of our generation with any mobile phone. The theme was “What the World Needs Now”, with participants working on short films built upon this theme, inspired by the new world we live in work and play in, and where the pandemic has moved us to express our hope, joy, compassion and humanity in new ways.

Veron Teng’s winning entry, titled, “What the ‘World’ Needs Now” is a short story about a son who is a great advocate in helping the less fortunate. However, he is unaware of this mother’s struggles to make ends meet and accuses her of being un-compassionate during these times. Veron received a S$20,000 cash prize, as well as a Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G and will also earn an opportunity to shoot and co-create video content on the Galaxy range of devices for Samsung’s campaigns in 2022.

“It has been a thoroughly gratifying experience where I was able to unpack and unfold stories with full creative rein. To be able to tell a story solely through the power of a smartphone has been unique, and I’m truly grateful for this opportunity where I’ve been pushed to think out of the box. I look forward to co-creating content with Samsung for their upcoming campaigns, and to also see how I can further unleash my storytelling skills with their devices,” said Teng. 

Five other individuals that were recognised for their outstanding works by the Festival Founders. They are:

2nd Place winner 

Special Award – Best Direction

Alvin Lee, 29, full-time filmmaker (“From a Distance”)

3rd Place winner

Clarissa, 26, freelance photographer & creative (“Not This Time”)

Special Award – Best Original 

James Fong, 33, actor & filmmaker (“Light”)

Special Award – Best Performance 

Kim Sim Kuang, 38, infotainment writer-director (“About Time”)

“We are pleased to have Short & Sharp as a platform to uncover and groom digital content creators, and I’m particularly amazed at the level of creativity and ingenuity our participants have brought to the room in partnership with our Festival Founders. The 2021 Festival may have ended, but we want to continue our efforts in igniting the passion amongst content creators to create meaningful and inspiring stories with our latest, top-of-class mobile technology features such as 8K video recording and hyper-fast 5G connectivity. We look forward to partnering with more creators in future Short & Sharp Mobile Film Festivals and empowering them with our Galaxy range of products to elevate their storytelling capabilities,” said Sarah Chua, Vice President, IT & Mobile, Samsung Electronics Singapore. 

About Short & Sharp, a mobile film festival powered by Samsung 

Launched in February 2021, Short & Sharp is a short film festival organised by Samsung to bring the power of its technology to the hands of storytellers and content creators. The festival saw over 300 entries, with 15 finalists shortlisted. 

Local film and entertainment luminaries including Eric Khoo, Anthony Chen, Mark Lee, Jeanette Aw, Haresh Tilani and Terence Chia from Ministry of Funny and Wong Kim Hoh served as Festival Founders and judges this year. Finalists had an opportunity to attend masterclasses conducted by Festival Founders, where they picked up skills on filmmaking and content creation. 

“We are super thankful that we had the opportunity to partner with Samsung for Short & Sharp, as it gave us opportunities to capture scenes and learn to tell stories in new ways. The form factor and power of the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G makes it ideal as a tool for anyone wanting to pursue the craft of filmmaking. Throughout the process, we also met a number of promising filmmakers with fresh perspectives of telling homegrown stories, which has inspired us as well,” shared Haresh Tilani and Terence Chia of Ministry of Funny. The Festival was held in conjunction with the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Series 5G. Designed to deliver epic experiences, the Galaxy S21 Series 5G smartphones feature advanced photography and videography features powered by a pro-grade camera system. 

Short & Sharp is expected to return in 2022. To learn more about Short & Sharp, visit https://www.samsung.com/sg/short-and-sharp/ 

As a fellow photographer, content creator and in recent years moving into/learning videography/filmmaking, Samsung’s Short & Sharp Mobile Film Festival inspires and encourages other fellow content creators as well. It’s great to see outstanding short films being shot and produced by fellow content creators here in Singapore!

I would like to invite you to visit all finalist short films on the Festival’s microsite here!

* Information and picture courtesy of Samsung Singapore and IN.FOM *

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