Suicide, moral questioning, and humanity are prominent themes in the program, showcasing new voices in Vietnamese cinema. Programmer: Marcus Manh Cuong Vu Email: brcuong@gmail.com 18+ Duration: 75:02 S-EXPRESS 2025: VIETNAM How to Not Commit Suicide at 22 (Cách để không tự tử ở tuổi 22) [d][w] Hiếu Ađi Vietnam / 2025 / Fiction / 30:00 Huy […]
Decoding Thainess through the fresh voices interm of shorts by Thai promising filmmakers Programmer: Athipan Simmakam Email: athipansim@gmail.com 18+ Duration: 72:00 S-EXPRESS 2025: THAILAND CRAZY LOTUS (บัวบา้ ) [d][w] Naween Noppakun Thailand / 2024 / Experimental / 15:00 Set in the fictional realm of Blank Clock, Crazy Lotus explores a society where individuals, equipped with Distant […]
Programmer: Thaiddhi Email: thaiddhi@gmail.com 18+ Duration: 62:00 S-EXPRESS 2025: MYANMAR BEING OHNMAR (ဥမ ာ) [d][w] Sai Nyan Linn Sett Myanmar / 2024 / Fiction / 19:00 After the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, 34-year-old Ohnmar plans to leave the country with her fiancé. – INCARNATIONS OF LOVE, LOSS, AND TRIUMPH, 2023 (ချစ်ြခငး် ၊ ဆးံ ံးရြခငး် င […]
Five short films directed by five female Malaysian filmmakers. This program is also meant for the S-Express 2025 Malaysia, the South East Asia Programmers Networks and Exchange.
Programmer: ChongLee Yow
Transformation: Set between imagined futures and familiar Indonesian realities, each story reveals a quiet struggle with identity, belonging, or the weight of expectations. This program invites us to sit with longing, defiance, and the hope of understanding, offering space for reflection rather than resolution.
Programmer: Fransiska Prihadi
Through a mix of genres and perspectives, this collection of short films offers a glimpse into the creativity and concerns of Brunei’s young filmmakers.
Programmer: Nurain Abdullah
Titled after Natalie Diaz’s 2020 poem, The First Water is the Body is a program of queer Filipino short films whose intimacies are tied to images of water and its mutability. These shorts tackle false dichotomoies queer people learn to outgrow—between love and loss, labor and exploitation, selfhood and community, submission and resistance. Quiet yet audacious, the program traces queer temporalities, mutable identities, and unrealized futures. It renders transparent the bodies that hold these invisible longings and fears, revealing how life demands us to become like water: at once life-giving and perilous, unpredictable and uncontainable. - Jason Tan Liwag
The playfulness and the poetic charm of the short film medium are wonderfully encapsulated through these short films from Singapore. Experience the complications, joy and absurdness of life as they capture the resilience and perhaps, tragedy of surviving in this world. - Leong Puiyee