Limkokwing dominates Guiyang International Students Ocean Short Film Competition 2018
Three Limkokwing University students recently took the second annual Wonderful World: 2018 International Students Ocean Short Film Exhibition by storm with their short film that captured the bitter-sweet moments in the lives of children with autism and the uniqueness of a village in China.
Limkokwing students Raja Mohamad Amin Raja Azhar, 25; Saidatul Nurlin Ahmad Hismanuri, 25; and Edwin Tan Leng Phil, 26, competed against teams from 29 universities and eight countries, emerging victorious with their poignant documentary.
Raja Mohamad and Saidatul are final year students of Limkokwing University’s Master in Digital Film and Television while Edwin is pursuing his PhD in the same area of study at Limkokwing.
The three are the only representatives from Malaysia in the recently concluded film exhibition that was held in Guiyang, the capital city of China’s Guizhou province.
The trio made a clean sweep in five important categories, thus securing the winning spot within the competition. The five categories include Best Director; Best Cinematography; Most Popular by Students; the Grand Jury Prize; and Best Charity Award.
The victory was made even sweeter when Raja Mohamad was offered the opportunity to pursue a postgraduate doctoral degree (PhD) at any university in Shanghai, China or Melbourne, Australia.
Unexpected victory
Raja Mohamad said their competitors were all highly experienced in making short films, so winning was really an unexpected bonus.
He said that since it was their first time participating in an international level competition, it was surprising that the jury paid such close attention to their work.
“It was our lecturer Dr Li Qiao who gave us full support to join the competition. In fact, he was the one who submitted our names,” said Raja Mohamad.
The three Limkokwing students were in Guiyang for 7 days where they were taken on tours to learn as much as they could, about the people and culture of the land; therefore enabling them to form unique ideas for the short film.
“We were given 48 hours to complete a short film driven by creativity. As the group leader, I took on the role of director as well as cinematographer while Saidatul was in-charge of production management and Edwin, the film editor,” explained Raja Mohamad.
The event organised by Qingdao University of Science and Technology saw participants from all over the world, including China, South Korea, the United States, Germany, France, and Tanzania.