The inaugural International Film Camp (IFC), organised by the Asian Film Awards Academy in 2024, supported the creation of eight outstanding short films. Among them, Catching Alternative, directed by mainland Chinese filmmaker CHEN Yun, continues its strong festival momentum after its selection for the FIRST Beijing Fantastic Film Festival. On 12 November, at the Golden Rooster Films Project Market held during the 2025 China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival, the film distinguished itself among numerous submissions and received First Prize in the Scholastic Scheme – Public Submission Section, marking another remarkable achievement.

Recognised as one of the most significant events in the Chinese film industry, the Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival has long served as a major platform for the development and recognition of Chinese-language cinema. One of its key programme sections, the Scholastic Scheme, adopts the motto “Discovering the Young Talents of Cinema” and aims to identify promising new filmmakers at an early stage. Initiated by renowned filmmaker Huang Jianxin, the scheme focuses on nurturing emerging authors through a dual-track selection mechanism combining institutional recommendations and open public submissions. From this process, works demonstrating creative strength and distinctive artistic voices are selected, with honours spanning four categories and sixteen distinctions. In addition to winning First Prize, director CHEN Yun was also named a “Promising Talent” within the scheme.

Filmed in the Minnan dialect, Catching Alternative tells the story of Zheng Jie, a teenager from a boat-dwelling community who rescues people from the river while striving to resist the folk superstition of “water ghost catching alternative.” As uncanny realities close in, his beliefs begin to waver. This latest recognition further affirms CHEN Yun’s command of genre and emotional tension, while reinforcing IFC’s mission to foster the next generation of filmmakers across Asia.

Director CHEN Yun shared: “I would like to say that without the help from the IFC, this wouldn’t be possible. Catching Alternative was a very challenging short film project that I lacked the courage and resolution to bring to the screen. Getting tutored and receiving the funds from IFC changed it all. I talked to some judges from the Golden Rooster, and they all feel it is a project with a unique local voice, which is all about the theme of IFC last year, ‘my hometown’.”

The International Film Camp 2025 (IFC 2025) successfully took place this September at Sands China’s integrated resort in Macao, resulting in a new slate of eight selected short-film projects. Each selected project receives USD 38,000 in production funding, and the works have now entered various stages of development and filming. The Asian Film Awards Academy will continue providing a cross-cultural platform for emerging filmmakers, hoping to see more outstanding works—like Catching Alternative—shine on the international festival stage in the years ahead.