A 10-minute short film Bunga, produced by four UBD students enrolled in the Design and Creative Industries (DCI) Programme under the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), has been officially accepted to screen in the Australia Now ASEAN Competition at the 29th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival from 10th to 19th January 2020, in Bondi Beach, Sydney, as well as the following national tour from January to May 2020 across Australia. Flickerfest is Australia’s leading Academy®-accredited and BAFTA-recognised International Short Film Festival. A total of four Bruneian short films including three from UBD and one from Mahakarya Institute of the Arts Asia were submitted to the newly launched Australia Now ASEAN Competition Award (award valued at AUD 1,000). This is the first time, with the support of the Australian Government, that the Flickerfest Short Film Festival features a special category for filmmakers from ASEAN countries.

The four UBD student filmmakers responsible for making Bunga are Hanis Hashim, Izzuddin Jali, Rahim Sofri, and Azman Fontanilla. They are 2nd- and 3rd-Year DCI students enrolled in the AX-2304 Film, TV and New Media Production module taught by Dr. Yong Liu. The students also benefited from a valuable mentorship session with award-winning Australian film producer Samantha Laidlaw and film educator Jed Cahill from Queensland TAFE.

Bunga stands out from the four Bruneian submissions and has become the sole representative of Brunei to compete in Flickerfest 2020.

The short film tells a delicate story about a schoolgirl who feels emotionally neglected by her father. She encounters something attached to her memory that gradually bonds her old and new families together.