By Alex Low
“Just get off your ass and do something.” It sounds almost too simple for a seasoned filmmaker, but for Zahir Omar, the first-ever winner of BMW Shorties, it is the lesson that has stayed with him longest. When Zahir entered the competition with K-Hole, filmmaking in Malaysia was a very different proposition. Cameras and equipment had to be rented, productions demanded more resources, and getting a film in front of an audience was a challenge in itself.
The BMW Shorties gave him something deceptively simple: an outlet. A theme provided direction, a competition provided motivation, and suddenly there was a reason to stop thinking about making a film and actually make one.
FRAMING STORIES, SHAPING VISIONS
“Having a theme allowed you to get up and create something with a bit of direction,” he recalls. Winning then opened another door. His film travelled, exposing him to filmmakers and ideas beyond Malaysia, while the competition introduced him to a community of peers working towards the same thing. “You’re not lonely,” he says. “You have peers in the competition as well, and then you get to know each other’s work. You build a community.”
“We stopped defining the BMW Shorties as purely a film project. It’s a creative initiative. It’s a cultural, arts and creative initiative.” Sashi Ambihaipahan, Director of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at BMW Group Malaysia
Nearly two decades later, Darwish Syahmi is standing at a similar threshold, although almost everything around him has changed. The latest BMW Shorties winner is a young filmmaker fresh out of university, whose winning film was originally his final-year project.
Anak Omputeh was 20 minutes long, but the Shorties rules required entries to be 15 minutes. Darwish did not want to cut it. “I was very stubborn at the time,” he says. Eventually, he forced himself to make the film shorter, submitted it and won.
MORE THAN A FILM COMPETITION
Between the two filmmakers lies almost 20 years of Malaysian filmmaking continuity—and the story of BMW Shorties itself. What began as a short-film competition gradually became something broader: a platform for creative talent and, eventually, part of the ecosystem around Malaysia’s arts and cultural scene.
For Sashi Ambihaipahan, Director of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at BMW Group Malaysia, that evolution is perhaps the most important part of the story. “When it was started, it began with the intention of giving creative talents a platform for them to create, to have careers doing the things that they love in the creative space,” he says.
“You have peers in the competition as well, and then you get to know each other’s work. You build a community.”
Zahir Omar, 2007 (Inaugural) BMW Shorties Winner
The first BMW Shorties was held at The Annexe Gallery. Over time, the programme moved through spaces such as the Black Box and White Box at Publika and REXKL, alongside an emerging ecosystem of art, music, culture and independent creative expression. Some of that was deliberate; much of it was not. “But somehow it’s enabled all of this,” Sashi says.
Its significance, then, extends beyond the films and filmmakers it has supported. The Shorties helped create a pool of creative talent while giving young Malaysians permission to pursue something that might once have seemed impractical as a career.
The films themselves have also become a kind of cultural record. Across the years, they have explored race, religion, identity and different perspectives on Malaysian life, reflecting what young Malaysians have been thinking about at different points in time. In that sense, Sashi sees the Shorties as a measure of urban society —not simply responding to changes in Malaysian filmmaking, but participating in them.
A CHANGING CREATIVE LANDSCAPE
The barriers to filmmaking have changed considerably since the early days of the Shorties. Accessible technology has lowered the cost and complexity of making a film, while social media and streaming have created new ways to share work and reach audiences.
“Nowadays, just you and three mates can shoot a film,” Zahir says. For Sashi, that shift has also changed what the Shorties itself represents. “We stopped defining the BMW Shorties as purely a film project,” he says. “It’s a creative initiative. It’s a cultural, arts and creative initiative.”
For Darwish, that evolution comes at a crucial point. Coming out of film school, he had already learned that passion alone does not necessarily translate neatly into a career. Not everyone gets the chance to pursue what they love; people need to find money and find work. Winning the Shorties gave him something perhaps more valuable than validation: time. “It bought me a bit of time,” he says. Time to keep directing, telling stories and experimenting.
FILMING THE NEXT CHAPTER
For Darwish, the answer is to keep following the stories that interest him. He is not committed to a single genre but gravitates towards comedic and ironic stories that still have heart, emotional weight and honesty.
What he wants for Malaysian cinema is not necessarily a rejection of what audiences already enjoy, but a willingness to make space for more. He sees a future in which filmmakers, investors and audiences are more open to different kinds of stories, particularly those that may not fit the genres currently dominating Malaysian cinemas.
“Winning the Shorties bought me a bit of time. Time to keep directing, telling stories and experimenting.”
Darwish Syahmi, BMW Shorties 2025 Grand Prize Winner
“I hope that people can kind of open up the options a little bit more and see that, hey, this is also really great cinema too,” he says. Zahir’s perspective on the future is similarly optimistic. If anything, he sees fewer excuses for the generation coming through now. His advice is much the same as the advice he would give his younger self—do not be afraid to fail, make mistakes and keep making things.
In many ways, that continuity is the story of BMW Shorties. Almost 20 years after the first competition, the technology, platforms, creative spaces and Malaysian cinema itself have changed. What has not changed is the need for someone to take an idea seriously enough to make it real. “It’s meant to inspire what is possible,” Sashi says.
The legacy of BMW Shorties lies not only in the films it has funded or the filmmakers who have gone on to build careers, but in the gradual expansion of what young Malaysians can imagine doing with a camera, a story and an idea.
Zahir needed a platform to take his first leap. Darwish has been given the time and space to take his. The next generation will arrive with different tools and different stories to tell, but the invitation remains much the same: make something, see where it takes you, and find out for yourself what is possible.
Photography: Lily Allissa
