WEE LILIN
UTA ARNING
Honorary Award at Singapore Short Film Awards February 11, 2011
Snow Child Feb 16, 2011
The Singapore Short Film Awards presented an Honorary Award to Wee Li Lin ’11 (MFA, Dramatic Writing) for her outstanding contributions to the Singapore short film scene. The Singapore Short Film Awards is the only platform that recognizes excellence in short films in Singapore. “Wee Li Lin is one of the leading female filmmakers in Singapore. She has created a unique body of work that stands out for its colorful characters and everyday humor. The award recognizes her outstanding contribution to the short film community and Singapore film industry as a whole…,” shares Wahyuni A. Hadi, one of the organizers of the awards. “I’m absolutely delighted and flattered to receive this award and I hope to continue to present an original and offbeat female voice in the Asian film scene and hope for more audiences to get to see my works,” says Li Lin, sharing her feelings on receiving the award.
Since leaving the classrooms of Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Uta Arning ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film) has been busy writing, producing and directing her feature film Snow Child. The film is based on a true event of a young Japanese man’s suicide attempt. Although the man survived with serious injuries, according to Arning, the most disturbing scene and the inspiration for this story, was the oblivious reaction from bystanders. Arning carefully researched the story, and eventually Snow Child became Arning’s thesis film, a full feature. After securing some investments from Germany for the film, Arning and her partners formed a production company in Germany. The film was shot in Japan from mid-November to December, 2010 with the help of her classmates Amalia Yunus ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film), Matthew Bowyer ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film), Gerald Crump ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film), Gavin Ramoutar ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film) and Ashish Ghadiali ’10 (MFA, Kanbar, Film). The Director of Photography is Matthew Mendelson (MFA, Kanbar, Film), her counterpart from the New York Campus’ MFA Program.
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