Rising Malaysian filmmaker Ananth Subramaniam is continuing his international momentum with his latest short film, Holy Crowd, which will world premiere at the 65th edition of Critics’ Week alongside the 79th Cannes Film Festival this May.
Co-directed with Indonesian filmmaker Reza Fahriyansyah, the 16-minute Indonesian-French co-production is part of the Next Step Studio initiative, a regional programme that brings together emerging Southeast Asian filmmakers through cross-border collaborations.
This year’s edition features four short films produced in Indonesia under a shared creative framework.
Holy Crowd follows a woman who mysteriously rises from the dead during her own funeral before becoming the centre of a growing wave of devotion after performing miraculous healings.
As crowds of believers and opportunists gather around her, the line between faith and manipulation begins to unravel.
The project is backed by a regional and international producing network led by Indonesian producers Yulia Evina Bhara and Amerta Kusuma of KawanKawan Media, alongside French producer Dominique Welinski, who also created and curates the Next Step Studio initiative.
The film later screened at more than 30 festivals worldwide, including the Singapore International Film Festival, SXSW and Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors New Films programme, while also winning the Youth Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
Beyond Holy Crowd, the filmmaker is also developing his first international co-production feature, Pray to the Thunder, with Sixtymac Pictures.
The project has already secured several awards at international project markets, including the Bucheon Award at Bifan NAFF Project Market, the SeaPitch Award at Bangkok BAFF Seapitch and the Southeast Asian Co-Production Prize at the QCinema Project Market in the Philippines.
