CathayPlay Commits RM10,000 in Festival Travel Grants for Malaysian Short Films under the CFAM Programme

The CFAM Short Film Support Programme, organized by the Chinese Film Association of Malaysia (CFAM) in collaboration with Marvelous Culture Film, has announced the two winning projects selected from among 10 shortlisted projects to receive production funding and post-production support: Sea Swallow Me, directed by Laura Low, and Storm After Storms, directed by Lim Han Loong.

Produced by Edward Lim, Sea Swallow Me follows a young Malaysian Indian boy who becomes fascinated by a charismatic Malay street racer and is gradually drawn into a world shaped by speed, desire, and the promise of belonging. Just as he begins to experience a new sense of freedom, everything starts to spiral out of control.

Produced by Choo Mun Bel, Storm After Storms unfolds over the course of a stormy night. As an eleven-year-old boy confronts the mysteries of his changing body for the first time, he discovers that some things are even harder to face in daylight than in the dark.

Under the theme “Ripples,” this year’s programme encourages filmmakers to draw from personal experience, social observation, and the realities of contemporary life to develop original Malaysian stories with strong local resonance and international potential.

Each winning team will receive RM30,000 in production funding and post-production support, bringing the total value of support to approximately RM75,000 per project. Across both winning projects, the programme represents a total support value of approximately RM150,000.

As an official partner of the programme, CathayPlay will provide two international festival travel grants of RM5,000 each. Separate from the production support awarded to the two winning projects, the travel grants will go to the first two eligible completed films from this edition of the programme to secure official selection at an international film festival. The grants are intended to help the respective filmmaking teams attend the festivals, present their completed works to international audiences, and develop meaningful connections within the global film community.

Through this collaboration, CathayPlay hopes to encourage participating filmmakers to pursue international festival opportunities and provide timely support as their films begin their journeys beyond Malaysia. This partnership also reflects CathayPlay’s support for a new generation of Malaysian filmmakers, championing creators with distinctive voices and strong local perspectives while helping their work reach wider networks of international circulation and exchange.