A three-hour opening screening in Cinema 3 of One City Cineplex on Thursday 16th November 2023 kicked off the 6th Edition of PRISM UBD Short Film Festival, which has become an annual regional film festival dedicated to showcasing student short films produced by students enrolling in higher learning institutions across ASEAN states.

Since 2022, PRISM has become one of the official events under the ASEAN University Network on Culture and the Arts (AUN-CA) umbrella. In the second year as an AUN-CA event, PRISM co-organiser Dr Yong Liu of the Design and Creative Industries (DCI) Programme and Mrs. Mayyer Ling of the English Studies Programme in Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at UBD received over 50 titles submitted from 10 higher learning institutions in Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand.

There are more short film entries from domestic higher learning institutions in Brunei this year. These domestic institutions include KIGS, Politeknik Brunei, Mahakarya Institute of the Arts Asia (MIAA), UBD, and Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA). International entries come from Bangkok University, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand, and Curtin University Malaysia.

A total of 24 short films produced by students from above institutions were showcased in the opening screening in One City Cineplex. This is the first time PRISM student short films being showcased on a big screen in a cinema theatre, indebted to One City Cineplex for its support to student filmmakers and young creatives in Brunei. Over a hundred audience members including students and lecturers from above institutions and representatives from Bruneian media sectors attended the opening screening.

The theme for this year’s PRISM is Crisis and Opportunity. A total of 29 student short films, which is the highest number ever in a single edition in PRISM’s six-year history, were nominated as finalists to compete in five categories: Best Fiction Short Film, Best Documentary Short Film, Best Animation Short Film, Best Experimental Short Film, and Best Social Media Content. This year’s jury panel is comprised of four jury judges from Brunei’s major media organisations, production houses, and media authority AITI, along with an international jury member from a European university. The winner in each competition category will receive a B$500 cash prize.

The 6th PRISM‘s opening screening kicked off with an opening short film Séance, which is a smartphone made short film just won the Dracula Digital 2023 Competition Trophy – an international smartphone filmmaking competition – in the 5th Dracula International Film Festival in last month. It was followed by a continuous screening of the selected finalist films in the order of documentary, animation, experimental, social media, and fiction genres.

As a tradition, all the 29 PRISM finalist shorts and Séance will be part of a three-week online screening on Progresif Media – Brunei’s leading online streaming platform for domestic contents – that begins on Monday 20th November and ends on 6th December, 2023. During the online screening period, all the 30 short films may be watched on Progresif Media’s online steaming website for free and registered viewers may vote for their favourite short film to win the People’s Choice Award, which is sponsored by Progresif Media, based on the most popular votes.

Winners of all the five categories will be announced in an Award Ceremony scheduled on Thursday, 7th December 2023. Creators of selected PRISM short films will have an opportunity to discuss with Progresif Media on how to commercialise their creative works based on a SVOD revenue-sharing agreement signed between the individual student filmmakers and Progresif Media.