MACAU, Dec 13 — Director Tan Seng Kiat’s first feature film Shuttle Life made Malaysian headlines just a couple months back when it was nominated for two Golden Horse awards, but before that it had already won major awards on the film festival circuit.

Now with all the accolades still fresh on his mind, the Malaysian film-maker tells us he is all set to start work on his next film titled One Fine Day.

"One Fine Day focuses on yet another social issue that happens in Malaysia but it is not highlighted because such issues are often hidden behind closed doors or not talked about at all,” he said.

The new film focuses on what happens to a family after a child is raped and killed.

"The storyline is not so much about the crime itself, but more about how the family grapples with the realities of life after a child is cruelly taken away from them in such a violent manner,” he said.

"Making films that focus on these issues is a way to bring them out in the open, to show that these issues will not go away if they are ignored and that there are ways to face them and come to terms with it,” he said when met at the International Film Festival and Awards Macau (IFFAM) 2017.

Tan’s One Fine Day won the Grand Prize of the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) last month. The award is for projects that are in pre-production stage at the time of entry. This is the second time he has won award as he won for Shuttle Life back in the 2014.

Tan is in Macau as Shuttle Life was picked to be showcased in the Best of Fest section of IFFAM. A public screening of the film was held yesterday at the Cinematheque Passion here.

It is the only Malaysian film to be showcased in IFFAM this year. The film tells the story of Ah Qiang who lives in Kuala Lumpur with his mentally unstable mother and five-year-old sister, Hui.

When tragedy strikes, Ah Qiang is faced with the predicament of claiming his sister’s body and proving his relationship to her as her birth was never registered.

Shuttle Life premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September and went on to win Best Film, Best Actor (Jack Tan) and Best Cinematographer at the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival.

The film also won Best Actor (Jack Tan), Best Cinematography and Best Production Design at the 12th Chinese Young Generation Film Forum Awards in China and the film won the Special Jury Award at the 29th Malaysian Film Festival.

The film was also nominated in two categories at the 54th Golden Horse Awards.

Tan does not think of these nominations and awards as a sign of success, but sees them as more of a bonus.

"I feel these awards were more of a sign of success for our Malaysian indie film industry,” he said.

Tan had initially rejected taking part in the 2014 Golden Horse FPP together with producer Ong Lay Jin for Shuttle Life.

"I rejected him twice and the third time he came to me, I finally agreed,” he said.

Tan was a short film director and screenwriter and prior to Shuttle Life, he did not consider going into feature film-making.

"Film-making is a tedious and long process and I never thought of going into it but since Ong insisted and it was the Golden Horse FPP after all, I thought I would give it a try,” he said.

The 2014 Golden Horse FPP was an eye-opener for the film-maker as the workshops gave them constructive criticisms that helped polish Shuttle Life into the film that was finally released this October.

"We changed a lot of the script during the workshops. It was not fully developed when we pitched it at the Golden Horse FPP. I can say the whole script was changed, only the name was maintained,” he said.

After winning the grand prize at the Golden Horse FPP, Tan said the process of shooting the film was a tedious and long journey.

"I actually argued a full year with my producer on casting Jack as the lead actor,” he said.

He believes it will be an equally tedious process for One Fine Day, from finalising the script to casting to shooting it.

"For now, I can’t see it yet. We have to get investors, the financing in place, the script, so many things to do, so I really can’t see when we can actually start on it yet,” he said.

The second IFFAM, which opened on December 8 is an international competition for first- and second-time film-makers.