Gladys Ng, a talented homegrown director, recently won the Best Singapore Short Film under the Southeast Asian Short Film category at the Silver Screen Awards, Singapore International Film Festival 2015. At the age of only 27, winning such a prestigious award is a formidable feat to be commended.
My Father After Dinner is about “the preoccupations of modern life [that] allow Ying to only come home late in the night, where dinner prepared by her father, awaits. What builds up is a portrait that magnifies in its minutiae of her father’s daily life, as well as the nuances of Asian familial love.”

TheKopiWrite checks in with her to find out more about what inspires her work and the challenges she faced while creating this masterpiece.

First and foremost congratulations on the award, how do you feel after receiving the award?

Gladys: I am really happy and I just cannot wait to share the great news with my parents. The funny thing is that before I knew I received the award they had already placed me like at the Winners seating area and I was getting all these strange looks and smiles from other people, and even words of congratulations, which kind of let me know that I was going to win something even before it was announced.

How do you think your family will react?

Gladys: I am sure they will be jumping for joy, and screaming and going crazy.

What inspired you to create this film?

Gladys: I studied in Melbourne for 3 and a half years, and when I came back I realised my dad started to pick up cooking. Especially because he is retired, he is always trying to make new dishes and good food for our family. Kind of similar to how I like to make films he’s constantly experimenting with new dishes. That’s how I got the idea to make the film about him and the routine of Sunday dinners.

Singapore film scene is not as well known and out there as in other countries, what words of advice do you have to young filmmakers out there?

Gladys: I try to be as honest as possible, and be as authentic as I can in terms of my environment, instead of trying to imitate other films from the international scene, I tried to bring out the spirit of Singapore.

What was the most challenging thing you faced making this film?

Gladys: Initially funding wise it was quite  struggle because unlike when I was still in film school where the school would provide all the equipment and such, on my own I did not have that luxury. So with the help of using crowdfunding and thankfully it was successful in the end, and I had really great people that helped to bring my video to production.

How did you get into film making and were your parents supportive?

Gladys: My parents were not against me doing film but they definitely were worried about my future. However all of my siblings would always back me up and tell my parents that they should just “relax lah” and don’t kancheong. My whole family is eccentric in their own way but they all came together to get my pushed out there.

How did you know you wanted to do film?

Gladys: After O levels I initially chose Film, Sound & Video (FSV) in Ngee Ann Poly because there were no exams, and they graded through project work. I was just “trying to be funny”, but in my final year one of my lecturers told me that I could write and I should give it a try to do directing. This is when I got serious about it and went to Australia to continue honing the craft.

Do you want to continue pursuing film in the future?

Gladys: I don’t know I think nobody can actually predict what can happen in the future. However in the short term I am already dreaming big ideas for my next short film, but still nothing concrete yet. For my next project I plan to explore something more non-narrative and out of my comfort zone so that I can push myself further.

Any special thanks?

To my family, they are a very talented bunch who helped make this film possible and of course to SGIFF for having this film to be a part of their festival.

The Straits Times coverage can be found here.  Read more about the story at Pozible!

Psst, for more juicy updates, check out TheKopiWrite’s list of the Best Dressed Celebrities at the Singapore International Film Festival  and our Full Event Coverage!