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Wednesday, November 19, 2025
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Lao Filmmakers Fund 2025 Awards Support for Shorts and Features

This Week

The Lao Filmmakers Fund 2025 announced on 19 November that it will support three short films and help develop four feature-length projects. 

The fund, backed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Southeast Asia and the Luxembourg Embassy in Vientiane, partnered with Blue Chair and LanXang Shorts to run the first LanXang Shorts Film Camp, along with a pitch contest and production awards.

LanXang Shorts, which was set up to train and encourage new Lao filmmakers, held a multi-day Film Camp this year focused on practical skills and mentorship. The camp ended with a pitch competition, where three projects were selected to receive production funding from the LFF.

This year’s program also put a spotlight on women filmmakers from Laos, Thailand, and Singapore.

Blue Chair said the partnership reflects its ongoing commitment to working with groups that aim to strengthen the Lao film community.

The Lao Filmmakers Fund 2025 announced on 19 November that it will support three short films and help develop four feature-length projects. The fund, backed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Southeast Asia and the Luxembourg Embassy in Vientiane, partnered with Blue Chair and LanXang Shorts to run the first LanXang Shorts Film Camp, along with a pitch contest and production awards. LanXang Shorts, which was set up to train and encourage new Lao filmmakers, held a multi-day Film Camp this year focused on practical skills and mentorship. The camp ended with a pitch competition, where three projects were selected to receive production funding from the LFF. This year’s program also put a spotlight on women filmmakers from Laos, Thailand, and Singapore. Blue Chair said the partnership reflects its ongoing commitment to working with groups that aim to strengthen the Lao film community.
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The 2025 project grantees include both new and experienced filmmakers from around the country. Competition at this year’s pitch contest was tough, but these three teams stood out with a clear vision and solid production plans.

The short film awards for the Lao Filmmakers Fund 2025 are:

“She”

Genre: Horror

Director: Hatthouna Manyvongsy

Producer: Dolar Moungkhounkham

(photo supplied)

“The Peddle”

Additionally selected for Purin’s Short Film Camp 2025

Genre: Drama

Director/Writer: Larsoutchai Sitthihakpanya

Producer: Toulaphone Sommalath

(photo supplied)

“A House is Not a Home”

Genre: Drama

Director: Savika Phimphisan

Director of Photography: Toun Souvanpheng

(photo supplied)
(photo supplied)

Feature Length awards for the Lao Filmmakers Fund 2025 are:

Unforgotten Bloodline

Genre: Drama

Director: Lee Phongsavanh

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Lee Phongsavanh’s Unforgotten Bloodline follows a 15-year-old boy who is sent to live with the mother he’s never met in a remote Lao village, where the unresolved legacy of the Secret War has twisted local traditions into something unsettling.

The LFF 2025 grant will support the project’s feature-length drama during pre-production.

Run Son

Genre: Thriller

Director: Anysay Keola

(photo supplied)

The LFF 2025 grant will support Anysay Keola in developing the script and preparing pre-production for Run Son, a thriller about a young mechanic in rural Laos. As he searches for love and a sense of belonging, he’s drawn into a dangerous world.

Torn between loyalty and his own conscience, he’s betrayed by people he trusted, and his journey ends in a violent reckoning.

Weaving Time: A Journey Through Lao Looms

Genre: Documentary

Director: Soukthavone Thanomenon

(photo supplied)

In Weaving Time: A Journey Through Lao Looms, Director Soukthavone Thanomenon introduces us to three remote provinces of Laos. The film follows the daily lives of women, each from a different ethnic group Khmu, Tai Lue, and Hmong who sustain their communities’ traditional weaving practices. 

Through the intimate lens of these three women, the documentary feature weaves a broader story: one of intergenerational wisdom, feminine endurance, and cultural negotiation.

Teacher’s Shimma First Love

Based on the short story “Teacher Shimma’s First Love” by Phouvong Phalakhone (2023)

Genre: Drama

Producer: Dolar Moungkhounkham

Director Mongkoudphet Hansana is set to receive LFF 2025 support for the pre-production of Teacher Shimma’s First Love. The drama follows Shimma, an elderly man living with a disability who was separated from the woman he loved when he was young. 

With time running out, he turns to Sone, a young tour guide, to help him find Maily in Oudomxay.

Launched in 2013, the LFF, administered by Blue Chair, provides direct funding to support Lao film projects, helping filmmakers to bring their original stories from script to screen. 

As in prior years, the application process was competitive, with a panel of film industry professionals reviewing and ranking the submissions based on the merits of the projects, the feasibility of their budgets and timelines, and their goals for reaching audiences.

To read more about Blue Chair or this year’s LFF projects, visit www.bluechair.film.

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