For the Next New Wave Award, we’ve invited Shanjhey Kumar Perumal (Malaysia), Sharifah Amani Syed Zainal Rashid Al-Yahya(Malaysia) and Aditya Assarat(Thailand) as our jury member for Next New Wave Competition.
Get to know them better here!
Shanjhey Kumar Perumal
Shanjhey Kumar Perumal has 10 years of experience in the creative media industry as Director/Writer. He obtained a degree in Communication majoring in ‘Film & Broadcasting’ from USM.
He does TV shows for a living and short films & documentaries for passion. His short film ‘Thaipoosam’ screened in the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2006. He won Grand Prize in BMW Shorties Malaysia 2009 for his ‘Machai’ short film entry. Another short film of his, ‘Jagat’ won Best Cinematography in the International Toronto Tamil Film Festival 2011.
His documentary, ’The Day That River Ran Red’, won Jury Award in Freedom Film Festival Southeast Asia, Kuala Lumpur 2013. His debut feature film, ‘Jagat’ (2015), won Best Malaysian Picture for the year 2016. ‘Jagat’ is now being screened in International Film Festivals.
Sharifah Amani
Sharifah Amani binti Syed Zainal Rashid Al-Yahya is a Malaysian actress. She is the best known for her role as Orked in the 2005 film of Sepet and Gubra. Amani is of Malay-Chinese-Arab-Bengali parentage and speaks fluent English,Malay and some Hindi. She is passionate about acting and films.She has been involved in many different aspects of film making. She was an assistant director for Ahmad’s last feature film Talentime (TIFF 2009). She has also directed Sangkar, Kampung Bangsar and Eve. Amani has also starred in a Japanese film, Redemption Night (2013), directed by Takato Hosoi.She has been invited to and attended international film festivals in Hawaii, Singapore, Taipei, Bangkok, Paris and Mexico.
Aditya Assarat
Aditya Assarat was the first recipient of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative which gave him the chance to apprentice with the director Mira Nair. In 2007, his debut feature Wonderful Town won the New Currents Award from the Busan Film Festival and the Tiger Award from the Rotterdam Film Festival. In 2013, he served as the directing mentor for the Asian Film Academy.
Aditya also serves as a producer for other young filmmakers. He produced Eternity, debut feature of Sivaroj Kongsakul, which won Tiger Award in Rotterdam Film Festival 2011, and 36, debut feature of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, won New Currents Award at the Busan Film Festival in 2012. In 2013, he produced Nawapol’s follow-up Mary is Happy. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and became the highest grossing independent Thai film of the year.