The Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC) is set to close operations, six years after becoming the first ever script lab in the region.
The non-profit foundation, which helped Southeast Asian filmmakers working on their first, second or third feature-length scripts, cited a lack of funding as well as the ongoing pandemic as reasons for having to shutter the organisation.
“The loss of funders, compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic which has made finding new support much more difficult, are the main deciding factors for this,” said SEAFIC in a statement released today. “The difficulty of holding in-person events and rising costs of travel are further reasons.”
The final sessions will be the SEAFIC Seeb Lab, which focusses on shorts and is set to run April 3-9. Once concluded, SEAFIC’s final day of operation will be April 15.
Organisers had considered retaining SEAFIC as an entity and hold out for fresh funding but this has been ruled out as expenses and taxes still need to be paid to keep it going. The foundation also felt it was unreasonable to retain staff without income.
Co-founded by Raymond Phathanavirangoon and Visra Vichit-Vadakan, SEAFIC received an outstanding contribution to Southeast Asian cinema award at the Singapore International Film Festival in December.
A total of 20 Southeast Asian feature projects have been selected for its script lab since its launch in 2016, five of which have wrapped or are in production. They include Autobiography by Makbul Mubarak (Indonesia), Arnold Is A Model Student by Sorayos Prapapan (Thailand), Ajoomma by He Shuming (Singapore/South Korea), Last Shadow At First Light by Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan), and Cu Li Never Cries by Pham Ngoc Lan (Vietnam). A further five projects are expected to start filming this year.
The SEAFIC Seed Lab was the latest development by the foundation and launched in November. The first, week-long session was held online in December and the second is due to take place in Phuket, Thailand from April 3-9, making it SEAFIC’s first in-person lab in two years.
The five participating short filmmakers are San Danech (Cambodia), Sam Manacsa (Philippines), Shoki Lin (Singapore), Tulapop Saenjaroen (Thailand) and Viet Vu (Vietnam).
France’s Produire au Sud producer training workshop., which had been SEAFIC’s programme partner from the beginning, plans to continue its Southeast Asian workshops.
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