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The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee (COSC) has selected “Becoming Human,” directed by Polen Ly, as the country’s official submission for the international feature film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
The film
follows Thida, the spirit guardian of an aging cinema slated for demolition, as she weighs the choice of rebirth against her existence as a ghost. Her bond with Hai, a living man she meets along the way, pushes her to confront both her spiritual fate and a country in the midst of sweeping social change.
“Becoming Human” is Ly’s debut feature. He previously made the short film “Further and Further Away” in 2022 and the documentary “Until the Orchid Blooms,” which premiered at IDFA in 2024 and won the grand prize at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2026. The cast is led by 15-year-old newcomer and dance student Savorn Serak alongside Piseth Chhun, who won the Venice Horizons award for best actor in 2021 for his role in Kavich Neang’s “White Building.”
Daniel Mattes produced the film through his Cambodia-based banner Anti-Archive. Singapore’s Minri Media came aboard as executive producer, with fellow backers Kongchak Pictures, based in Cambodia, and Singapore’s Momo Film Co rounding out the associate producer team. Lights On is handling world sales. Son Doan, cinematographer on Truong Minh Quy’s “Viet and Nam,” shot the film, and Kavich Neang, director of “White Building,” edited it. Post-production sound work and score recording were completed at a Phnom Penh facility, Kongchak Studio. The film was developed as part of the Biennale College Cinema initiative’s 13th edition, a program run by La Biennale di Venezia with backing from the Italian Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate Cinema, along with additional support from Chanel.
“Becoming Human” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025 and has since screened at Busan, BFI London, Taipei Golden Horse, Seattle and Shanghai. It won the audience award and the top prize, the Golden Hanoman, at the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in Indonesia, and Chhun picked up a lead-acting honor at Rome’s Asian Film Festival.
Ly called the selection “both an honor and an inspiring representation of local independent cinema,” adding, “the film even though was made on a micro-budget, our small, but loving and skillful crew shaped a healthy environment, which for me was an important force behind the craft of this film.”
COSC founder Mariam Arthur pointed to a wider field than usual this year, saying there are typically only one or two eligible films. “Notable this year were films such as ‘Far Away, Close to You’ by Mony Kann Darung; ‘Banh’ by Bou Panha; ‘The Old Man’ by Chap Somchanrith; and ‘Me and My Brother’ by Kou Darachan,” Arthur said, calling it “a huge step forward that Khmer filmmakers are willing to invest in drama and romance genres.”
Cambodia has submitted films for the International Feature Film category since 1994. Rithy Panh’s “The Missing Picture” earned the country’s only nomination in 2013, and Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” reached the shortlist in 2022.
“Becoming Human” opens in Cambodian cinemas nationwide on Aug. 27. The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 14, 2027.
