IFC 2024 Funded Short Film Reaches New Stage – Catching Alternative Selected for Beijing FIRST Fantastic Magnet Section
Director Chen Yun explores Minnan folk beliefs through a genre-driven short film competition.
Organized by the Asian Film Awards Academy, the inaugural International Film Camp (IFC) in 2024 produced eight outstanding short films. Among them, Catching Alternative, directed by Chen Yun from Mainland China, has officially been selected for the Fantastic Magnet short film competition of the FIRST Fantastic Film Festival (Beijing). The festival will take place in Beijing from September 20 to 27, 2025, where the film will be screened and compete for awards.
The FIRST Fantastic Film Festival positions “Genre × Innovation” as its curatorial core, creating an alternative arena for Chinese-language short films. The Fantastic Magnet section is dedicated to outstanding genre shorts, showcasing how a new generation of filmmakers experiments with narrative and cinematic language. It has become an important proving ground for emerging Chinese-language genre shorts.
Filmed in Minnan dialect, Catching Alternative follows Zheng Jie, a teenager from a boat-dwelling community who rescues people from the river and strives to resist the folk superstition of “water ghost catching alternative.” As uncanny realities intrude, his faith begins to falter. With precise pacing and rooted folk context, the film explores the boundaries between belief, fear, and growth, demonstrating the director’s command of genre tension and emotional depth within a short format.
Committed to nurturing the next generation of Asian filmmakers, IFC provides professional mentorship, cross-cultural exchange, and production funding to transform story concepts into films. The Asian Film Awards Academy organizes the camp with patronages of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, and the support of the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDAHK), the Film Development Fund (FDF) of the Hong Kong SAR Government, and Sands China Limited, and Shaw Studios as sponsors. The 2025 edition of IFC will be held in Macao from September 10 to 16, continuing its mission to discover and propel new voices onto the international stage.
