Every year, ADFEST gives four ambitious filmmakers their first ‘big break’ as part of the Fabulous Four program.

 
First, we invite ambitious directors to write a five-minute short film inspired by the theme of our festival, which in 2018 is ‘Transform’.

 
Next, the top four scripts – as voted by the festival’s Film Craft Jury – are named the ‘Fabulous Four’. These directors are then flown to Thailand to present their films to a live audience at ADFEST, which is an invaluable experience – although slightly nerve-wracking!

 
We asked three former F4 directors to reflect on what it’s like to be a Fabulous Four director. Here’s what they said:

 
ERIKA KONNO, TYO INC (JAPAN), FABULOUS FOUR 2016
 
“Winning the Fabulous Four Commendation award has been a big help for my career. I think I have been able to direct other projects with my own style since I was given this award.
 
The title of the Fabulous Four Commendation has put such good pressures on me when directing other works.  Also winning the Commendation has led me to meeting new people.  I am really grateful for this and I would like to keep trying my best at each work.”

 
PRANAV HARIHAR SHARMA (INDIA), FABULOUS FOUR 2015
 
“Fab Four turned out to be a great platform for me to position myself as a director. The short film 'Watermelon' I made was my first directorial job and since then I have directed 13 ad campaigns. Right now I’m working on my next short and a feature film as well.
 
You get to meet some great people from around the world.
 
You get to showcase your work in front of a truly international audience.
 
You get to position yourself as a director in front of the world, cutting the struggle by almost 99%.
 
And lastly, by making the Fab Four short film, you get that required confidence to pull off something like this with minimum resources.
 
Only because of Fab Four I’m now being seen as a director by my peers and clients and I’m getting opportunities to direct my own commercials as well as other people’s. Fab Four opened up my career directions.”

 
KAZUHIKO HIRAMAKI, GEEK PICTURES (JAPAN), FABULOUS FOUR 2016
 
“One thing that I really loved about being part of ADFEST was that there were numerous parties held every night, which helped me bond with people that I would not normally meet if I were in Japan.
 
It was really great experience. I had the chance to show my project BPM in front of all these people from the advertising and film industry and be critiqued.”
 
 ** ADFEST is now searching for next year’s Fabulous Four directors. The deadline for submissions is Friday 5th January 2018. Script submissions are free! For more information visit: http://www.adfest.com/Entries_fabulous.php or contact Nat@ADFEST for more details.