Academic Profile : Faculty
Ms Nicole Midori Woodford
Lecturer, School of Art, Design and Media
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Nicole Midori Woodford is a Singaporean film director, writer and editor. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Asian Film Academy, Torino Film Lab and Talents Tokyo. Her short film, Permanent Resident, was selected in many festivals including Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival. It investigates the paradoxes of Singaporean modern identity through a middle-aged woman and a manmade monolith. Her latest short film, Tenebrae, was produced in 2018 by Fran Borgia as part of an omnibus featuring upcoming Southeast Asian directors. Inspired by the decline of Singapore's architectural monoliths, her film was shot in Pearl Bank Apartments just before its demolishment. The short film explores the volatility of a cityscape subject to relentless redevelopment.
Nicole wrote and directed the Singaporean episode for the second season of the critically acclaimed HBO Asia series FOLKLORE 2. It made its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2021.
Her debut feature film project, Last Shadow At First Light, was selected in the SEAFIC lab, Southeast Asian Lab at SGIFF, Torino Film Lab, Talents Tokyo and Asian Project Market. Her project was awarded several development awards including the Open SEA Fund award, SEAFIC-TFL award, TFL's Co-Production award and the Kongchak Studio award. Nicole’s feature film explores the cyclical nature of traumas through the impacted land and its residents that transcends boundaries and borders. Her works also gravitate towards the bonds between strangers and surrogate families. Her feature film is now in postproduction.
Nicole was the FYP supervisor who mentored the students for two FYP thesis films, Adam, which premiered in Cinefondation at Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and Paper Roof which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. She was also honoured as the mentor of her student with the Koh Boon Hwee Scholars Award in NTU in 2019 and was awarded the prestigious Young Artist Award in 2020.
Nicole wrote and directed the Singaporean episode for the second season of the critically acclaimed HBO Asia series FOLKLORE 2. It made its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2021.
Her debut feature film project, Last Shadow At First Light, was selected in the SEAFIC lab, Southeast Asian Lab at SGIFF, Torino Film Lab, Talents Tokyo and Asian Project Market. Her project was awarded several development awards including the Open SEA Fund award, SEAFIC-TFL award, TFL's Co-Production award and the Kongchak Studio award. Nicole’s feature film explores the cyclical nature of traumas through the impacted land and its residents that transcends boundaries and borders. Her works also gravitate towards the bonds between strangers and surrogate families. Her feature film is now in postproduction.
Nicole was the FYP supervisor who mentored the students for two FYP thesis films, Adam, which premiered in Cinefondation at Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and Paper Roof which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. She was also honoured as the mentor of her student with the Koh Boon Hwee Scholars Award in NTU in 2019 and was awarded the prestigious Young Artist Award in 2020.
Nicole’s works and research seek to explore the myriad parallels between people in Asia and Southeast Asia using cinema as well as the space between the mundane and the profane.
As a filmmaker, she manipulates the day to day gestures of characters within her films and ritualises them while juxtaposing them alongside the uncanny. Her perspective focuses on the female psyche and how trauma is translated to the cinematic form featuring female protagonists. Nicole is also interested in traits of the horror genre to translate the psychological journeys of her characters.
In her feature film project, cyclical nature of trauma simultaneously transforms into a discourse and catharsis for characters based on accounts of surviving victims of the Great Tohoku disaster in 2011.
As a filmmaker, she manipulates the day to day gestures of characters within her films and ritualises them while juxtaposing them alongside the uncanny. Her perspective focuses on the female psyche and how trauma is translated to the cinematic form featuring female protagonists. Nicole is also interested in traits of the horror genre to translate the psychological journeys of her characters.
In her feature film project, cyclical nature of trauma simultaneously transforms into a discourse and catharsis for characters based on accounts of surviving victims of the Great Tohoku disaster in 2011.
Awards
Awarded the Young Artist Award in 2020 by the National Arts Council, Singapore's highest accolade for young arts practitioners.
Courses Taught
DF2000 Digital Film Production 1
DF3004 Digital Film Production 2
DF2005 Writing for Film
DF2001 Film Editing
DD4005 Media Art Interdisciplinary Seminar
DF2009 History of World Cinema
DN1015 Practical Digital Filmmaking
DF3004 Digital Film Production 2
DF2005 Writing for Film
DF2001 Film Editing
DD4005 Media Art Interdisciplinary Seminar
DF2009 History of World Cinema
DN1015 Practical Digital Filmmaking