Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites: Frameline 2025 Completion Fund Spotlight

Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (ចៅសំណព្វចិត្ត)
Directed by Chheangkea · Cambodia 🇰🇭 / France 🇫🇷 / USA 🇺🇸 · 19 mins

During her chaotic family’s Qingming visit, dead Grandma Nai sneaks away from her peaceful afterlife after overhearing that her queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman. Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the Short Film Jury Award for International Fiction.

Chheangkea (he/him) is a Cambodian-born filmmaker based in Brooklyn. He earned a BS in Architecture from MIT and an MFA in Filmmaking from the NYU Tisch Graduate Film program, where he was a Dean’s Fellow. He is a former Marcie Bloom Fellow and a Sundance TAAF Scholar.

Through his films, Chheangkea seeks to showcase the complexities and nuances of queer and Cambodian stories. His short film, Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for International Fiction. His previous short film, Skin Can Breathe, was a finalist of the 2022 HBO Max APA Visionaries competition and is now streaming on Max. His debut feature film, Little Phnom Penh, is currently in development, having been selected for the 2024 Hamptons Film Screenwriters Lab, MunichFilmUp, NYU Purple List, and the 2025 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.