User:Tayhiti/sandbox



Jia is an Australian short film written, co-produced, directed, and edited by Vee Shi, who created this film as a letter to his mother. It was co-produced by Nicholson Ren and Taysha McFarland, with Nicholson also serving as the film's cinematographer.

Plot
A grieving Chinese mother travels to Australia and embarks on a road trip with Eric to remember her late son. Ming's conservative values are tested when she learns that Eric was her son's lover.

Reception
Jia premiered at Flickerfest in 2023, where it won the Spectrum Films Award for Best Direction in an Australian Short Film (Vee Shi) and received an Honourable Mention for Best Actor (Sel Hiew). Jia also won several guild awards: the Australian Writers' Guild 2024 for Best Short Film, the Australian Directors' Guild 2023 for Best Direction in a Student Film , and Screen Producers Australia 2024 for Short Film Production of the Year. Additionally, it was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2024 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA).

Funding and Production
Jia was partially funded through the AACTA Pitch: Focus program in partnership with Sony. The film was shot across Victoria, Australia, traveling over 800 km in 7 days. A detailed production diary can be found here.

Director's Statement
家 (Jia) means home in Chinese.

At age 17, I moved to Australia from a village in China. That was 16 years ago. The familiar has become distant and exists only as memories in photographs. But the sound of my mother’s voice and the love in her eyes still feel like home. There are 500,000 words in Chinese, but my mother doesn’t know many because she never went to school. And over the years, we have fewer and fewer words to communicate as my Chinese deteriorates. But our love deepens despite the language, generational, and cultural barriers.

So I made Jia with almost no dialogue. It’s a letter to my mother. It encapsulates my deepest love for her but also my most terrifying fear and a secret that I am unable to tell in words.

Achievements, Awards and Recognitions
Screen Producers Australia 2024 | Winner of Short Film Production of the Year

AACTA Awards (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) 2024 | Nominee for Best Australian Short Film

Australian Writers' Guild 2024 | Winner of Best Short Film Script of the Year

Australian Directors' Guild 2023 | Best Direction in a Student Film

Flickerfest (Academy® accredited & BAFTA recognised) | 20-29 January 2023, Australia | Winner of Best Direction in an Australian Short Film | Special Mention for Best Actor in an Australian Short Film - Sel Hiew

Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2023 | City of Melbourne Award for Best Australian Short Film Iris Prize 2024 | Nominee

Tels Quels Festival Brussels 2023 | Winner - Jury Award

Melbourne International Film Festival (Academy® accredited & BAFTA recognised) 2023 | Accelerator Lab

Australia Independent Film Festival 2023 | Best Australian Short Film

Victorian Multicultural Film Festival 2023, Australia | Honourable Mention for Best Short Fiction Film | Winner of People's Choice Award

53rd Annual USA Film Festival's International Short Film & Video Competition | Honourable Mention for Best Narrative Short

Stellar Film Festival 2024 | Winner of Best Performance - Sel Hiew

Canberra Short Film Festival 2023 | Winner of Best Cinematography for Nicholson Ren

'''St Kilda Film Festival 2024

20th In The Palace (Academy Qualifying) 2023, Bulgaria

Cinefest OZ 2023''

Regina International Film Festival & Awards 2023

Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2023

Lublin Film Festival 2023

Midsumma Festival 2024''

Cast List

 * Sel Hiew as Ming Yu
 * Tyler Jenkins as Eric Hughes
 * Peter Isaac Koh as Yao Chen

Film Details

 * Duration: 15 minutes
 * Completed: January 2023
 * Shooting Format: Digital
 * Screening Format: DCP
 * Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
 * Language: English
 * Location: Melbourne, Australia