Adnan Al Rajeev’s short film ‘Ali’ has been named among the contenders for Best Short Form (Scripted) at the prestigious Asian Academy Creative Awards 2025.
The 15-minute film has already made waves on the global festival circuit. It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, becoming the first Bangladeshi film to receive a Special Jury Mention there.
Since then, Ali has travelled to the Melbourne and Toronto international festivals, where it drew acclaim for its fearless storytelling and cultural resonance.
Set in a conservative coastal town where women are forbidden to sing, the story follows a teenage boy blessed with a voice that can mimic a woman’s.
He secretly enters a citywide singing competition, turning the narrative into a metaphor for identity, self-expression, and defiance against social restrictions. Rajeev frames the film’s central theme as “voice as identity, visibility and resistance.”
At the awards, Ali will be competing with productions from across the region, including Australia’s ‘Moonbird’, China’s ‘The Leopard Cat Scholar’, Hong Kong’s ‘The Lines in My Head’, Indonesia’s ‘Pura-Pura Nikah’ (Fake Marriage), Japan’s ‘MICE MEDIA: Lessons in Internet Literacy – Is That Picture Real?’, Malaysia’s ‘LK School Daze: Hormone Harmonizer’, the Philippines’ GMA Integrated News ‘Eleksyonaryo: The Dapat Totoo Digital Exclusives’ and Singapore’s ‘Lucky Lucky!’
The Asian Academy Creative Awards, celebrating excellence in television and digital storytelling across 40 categories, revealed its 2025 National
Winners earlier this week. The final ceremony is scheduled for December 4 at Singapore’s Capitol Theatre.
