Universiti Brunei Darussalam and Progresif Media announced the winners of the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival 2022 in a Closing Ceremony took place in Pro Chancellor Arts Centre on Tuesday 6 December 2022.

For the first time ever, we see the 5th edition PRSIM has become one of the events under the umbrella of ASEAN University Network on Culture and the Arts (ANC-CA). As a result, a record of total 26 shortlisted student short films from Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), University Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Politeknik Brunei, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, and De La Salle University – Manila, the Philippines, were screened in the opening screening on Tuesday 15 November, followed by a three-week (16 November to 5 December) online streaming hosted on Progresif Media – the biggest local content stream platform in Brunei.

In the Closing Ceremony, each winning short film in the FOUR competition categories received a certificate of achievement and a cash prize of BND 500, offered by the organiser of PRISM UBD Short Film Festival – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at UBD. The full list of award-winning short films of the 5th Edition PRISM is:

• Lingering (dir. Suryane Binte Zaine, National University of Singapore) won the Best Fiction Short Film Award
• Menanti (dir. Nur Jazmeen Farzana Amirnuddin, Universiti Brunei Darussalam) won the Best Smartphone-Made Short Film Award
• Paws Up (dir. Mohamad Arif Zakwan Bin Mohamad Amiruddin, Politeknik Brunei) won the Best Documentary Short Film Award
• The Origin of Gold River Village (dir. Muhammad Amar Mubasyir bin Junaidi, Universiti Brunei Darussalam) won the Best Animation Short Film Award

One additional award category this year is still the People’s Choice Awards sponsored by Progresif Media. The winner was chosen based on the most popular votes gained throughout the online streaming period on Progresif Media website between 17 November – 5 December. The Head of Digital Innovation at Progresif, Haziq Sahrip, presented the BND300 cash prize and a certificate of achievement to the winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award – 25th Anniversary with LSDC – Street: Excellence Explained (dir. Mycs Villoso, De La Salle University, the Philippines). According to Progresif’s Media Team Head Ms. Olivia Ong: ‘This year’s 5th PRISM Short Film Festival received a total of 1,337 votes for 26 short film entries, comparatively from last year’s 337 votes. The winner garnered 23% of the total votes.’

Corresponding to the 5th PRISM elevating to a regional student short film festival in competitions, this year’s PRISM appreciated the dedication and fair judging work from an international jury panel chaired by Dr. Kathrina Haji Mohd Daud, the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UBD, and comprised of two Bruneian judges, Puan Rosnani Hj Md Yussof from the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and Tuan A’aqiil Ahmad from Filterworks Productions, as well as two international judges Ms. Mary Loh from National University of Singapore and Ms. Glorife Samodio from De La Salle University, the Philippines.

The uniqueness of the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival Closing Ceremony was the two panel discussions following the award presentation. The first panel was the traditional jury commenting session moderated by jury chair Dr. Kathrina Daud and joined by jury judge A’aqiil Ahmad. They introduced to the audiences how the judges came to the final decision of the winners in the FOUR competition categories. The second panel was organised by Progresif Media titled as Creators’ panel: The Realities of a Budding Filmmaker in Brunei, which was joined by four invited speakers, who are all young filmmakers in Brunei, including Natasya Jazmeena, Azeez Danial, Akmal Marhain and the moderator Iskandar Karim. Both panel discussions were extremely beneficial and inspiring for the attending student filmmakers from UBD and other higher institutes in Brunei.

Following the Closing Ceremony, a rerun of the 5th PRISM Opening Screening of ALL the 26 short film finalists began at 4 PM (Brunei time) on FASS UBD Official YouTube Channel on the same day for those interested to watch again the 26 selected titles in the 5th PRISM UBD Short Film Festival. A few student filmmakers will have an opportunity to discuss with Progresif Media on how to commercialise their short film works based on a SVOD revenue-sharing agreement signed between them and Progresif Media.