February 27, 2024 - กรุงเทพมหานคร — Changing Climate Changing Lives (CCCL) Film Festival concluded its annual flagship event in Bangkok this weekend. The fourth edition of the festival was held during February 15-18, 2024, at Alliance Française Bangkok, where 52 short films and three feature films from 18 countries were screened.
CCCL’s first Asian-wide short film competition in 2024 received 383 submissions from 17 countries and the 38 finalists represent Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Viet Nam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and Iran.
The Grand Jury Prize winner in the documentary category is a Japanese short documentary Miwatari (Dir. Yusuke Ono) about the fading occurrence of the natural phenomenon ‘Miwatari’ (the God’s crossing) or the rising of shards of ice in Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture.
The Grand Jury Prize winner in the fiction category is a Thai short comedy Avocado on Pancakes (Dir. Chinanang Tamrongtanakijakarn) about a couple flirting in a restaurant, where their conversation veers off in the wrong direction as they bicker about life style, carbon footprints, and their secret affair.
The jury prize winners include Cordillera Songs (Dir. Issaree Arunprasert), a Thai short documentary about a highland community in northern Thailand, and The Swallowing Sea (Dir. Afif Fahmi), an Indonesian short drama about a young man returning to visit his grandmother’s grave in his childhood village now submerged in sea water. Nine award winners from Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines receive cash prizes totaling 250,000 baht.
The 4-day flagship festival in Bangkok will be followed by screenings in Thai provinces during February 19-29 in Chiang Rai, Nan, Udon Thani, Nakhon Phanom, Songkhla, and Pattani (see program), and the online edition in March 2024.
CCCL Film Festival serves as a platform for filmmakers and communities in Thailand and beyond to tell stories through short films about climate change impacts, resilience, inspiration and innovation, aiming to stimulate conversations and inspire action on the climate crisis. Since 2020, CCCL has awarded film production grants to 54 short film projects. Each year 10 film grants are available to support Southeast Asian filmmakers. Call for short film proposals will open in April 2024.