Six independent film projects from across Southeast Asia will share $160,000 in production and post-production support from the Purin Film Fund, the Bangkok-based nonprofit announced for its Spring 2026 session.
Four projects received production grants. On the fiction side, “Dear Son An,” directed by Kim Quy Bui and produced by Le Diem Ha and Mai Nguyen Zeitmet for Vietnam’s A.T Sound Studio, centers on a nine-year-old boy who drifts between faith and fantasy as his mother, a single parent with cancer, prepares for her absence; and “Little Phnom Penh,” directed by Chheangkea Ieng and produced by Daniel Mattes for Anti-Archive, follows a Cambodian woman’s longing for home and belonging – spanning post-Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh to early-2000s California – as her first love resurfaces over time. Fiction production grants are valued at $30,000 each.
The two documentary production grantees are “Sisters in War,” directed by Thida Lay and produced by Thida Lay and Maya Newell for Myanmar-Australia outfit Lavender Production, which follows two sisters who set aside their roles as dutiful daughters to join the fight against the country’s military junta; and “Once, Here” (working title), directed by Pabelle Manikan and produced by Manikan and Kristoffer Brugada for the Philippines’ Papaya Film Production, which follows a fisherman and his wife who hold on to each other and their memories after foreign vessels take over the waters that once sustained them. Documentary production grants carry $15,000 each.
Two documentary projects secured post-production support. “Araro Ariraro,” directed by Gogularaajan Rajendran and produced by Kumanavannan Rajendran and Elizabeth Wijaya for Malaysia’s Om Sakthi Films, uses Tamil folk songs from colonial Malayan plantations as a window through which a family remembers and reimagines their faceless, voiceless ancestors; and “The People Outside,” directed and produced by Jewel Maranan for Cinema is Incomplete in the Philippines, follows a filmmaker into the Pacific-side mountain ranges of rural Philippines in search of the forces sustaining a deep-rooted conflict that has persisted for decades. Post-production documentary grants stand at $35,000 each.
“This Spring 2026 session we once again broke the record for submission numbers. While it’s encouraging that independent films continue to be made in the region, the number of funding organizations remains the same, which makes the environment increasingly competitive. Projects must really stand out from the crowd,” said co-director Aditya Assarat.
Founded in 2017 under the Purin Foundation and managed by filmmakers Anocha Suwichakornpong and Assarat, the fund focuses on independent cinema across Southeast Asia, spanning production, exhibition and education. Applications for the Fall 2026 session open Aug. 1.
