Thailand’s Purin Pictures fund unveils autumn 2025 recipients

Projects from Alyx Ayn Arumpac, Le Bao, Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan and Chris Chong Chan Fui are among the four Southeast Asian grantees in Purin Pictures’ autumn 2025 funding session.

Documentarian Arumpac who won acclaim for 2019’s Aswang continues to explore the cycle of violence and accountability in the Philippines through her latest work Tongues Of Fire, while Hearing is the follow-up feature of Vietnam-based Bao, whose 2021 debut film Taste won a special jury award at Berlinale’s Encounters strand.

Hum is the feature debut of Eblahan, who earned recognition from his short films such as Hilum, The Headhunter’s Daughter and most recently Vox Humana, which serves as a proof-of-concept for Hum.

Filmmaker and visual artist Chong’s Moto is a whimsical documentary about the daily lives of motorcycle riders in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and marks his return to feature-length filmmaking since his 2009 feature debut Karaoke premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight.

Bangkok-based Purin Pictures has received the highest number of submissions on record for this autumn session. However, the reading committee chose only four projects after deliberation, fewer than the usual five or six of previous sessions. 

“The quality these four projects have in common are a strong directorial vision, a producing team with a proven track record, and a dossier that is very thoroughly written,” said Purin Pictures co-director Anocha Suwichakornpong. “Among a large number of competing submissions, these are the factors that make a project stand out to a reading committee.”

The non-profit film fund supports independent cinema in Southeast Asia. Each winning project receives a production grant of $30,000 for fiction films and $15,000 for documentaries, while post-production grants are $50,000 for fiction films and $35,000 for documentaries.

Purin Pictures autumn 2025 grant recipients

Production grant 

Tongues Of Fire (Philippines)
Dir Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Pro Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Prodco Guerreros

Hearing (Vietnam, Singapore)
Dir Le Bao
Prod Thi Bao Yen Huynh, Elizabeth Wijaya, Lai Weijie
Prodco E&W Films 

Hum (Philippines, Singapore, US, Poland)
Dir Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Prod Alemberg Ang, Hannah Schierbeek
Prodco Daluyong Studios

Post-production grant

Moto (Malaysia)
Dir Chris Chong Chan Fui
Prod Nandita Solomon, Carmen Hau
Prodco Apparat 

• Tan Pin Pin, Wregas Bhanuteja secure grants from Purin Pictures fund