Watch: Colourless, the short film that won big at BMW Shorties 2018

Colourless is bright and vivid, offering richness in character and quality.

Put together a deaf girl, a burning passion, relentless drive and enduring love of a father, and you get the recipe for success at this year’s BMW Shorties independent film festival.

Colourless won big at the 12th BMW Shorties, taking home the awards for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound Design. But the cherry on top was surely when this 14-minute film took home the grand prize: a RM80,000 production grant. This grant will be used to fund Sixtymac’s next short film, but director Ananth Subramaniam says he’s already working on an upcoming feature.

“I make films that excite me, even better if I can tell people something new and important,” he shared at the BMW Shorties 2018 award ceremony.

“We hoped to portray the theme “DRIVE” as rooted in the everyday. There is a ‘Samantha’ (main character) in all of us – we are always working towards that one thing in life that gets us up every morning and keeps us going. The caveat is that it’s not always an easy journey; but the reward is worth it. ‘Colourless’ is our way of telling that story of drive, dream and desire, which all of us can relate to within our own circumstances.”

Colourless is bright and vivid, offering a richness in character and quality that signals a colourful future for Malaysian filmaking. The story was inspired by a deaf student in Ananth’s childhood swimming class. He dug deep into his past for a story that would break down walls, and build tolerance and understanding in its place – then the team at Sixtymac put it together with compelling style and aplomb.