Mengting Liu Gains Industry Attention for Sound Mixing Work on Two Critically Received Productions

[February 2026]

As North America enters a new annual content release cycle alongside the awards season, technical craftsmanship in short-form films and short drama series is increasingly drawing industry attention. Sound mixer Mengting Liu provided key audio production support for two works— the short drama 17 Heartbreaks When Love Has No Voice and the short film Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life. Through standardized workflows and consistently high-quality audio delivery, her professional contributions supported both projects in achieving notable results across international film festivals and overseas distribution platforms.

Among them, 17 Heartbreaks When Love Has No Voice is distinguished by its minimalist dialogue and reliance on non-verbal storytelling. The production received the Best Emotional Awakening Narrative Award at the International Short Drama Festival, an event known for its rigorous evaluation standards. The festival’s jury consists of university scholars and senior industry professionals, with assessments focused on emotional articulation and technical execution, lending the award a strong level of professional credibility.

Following its release, 17 Heartbreaks When Love Has No Voice quickly reached No. 1 on the daily popularity ranking of the overseas short-content data platform Guangdada, with a single-day peak popularity score of 89,500. Publicly available data shows that the series has accumulated over 420.9 million likes and 8.9 million saves on the Playlet platform to date, reflecting extensive audience reach and sustained user engagement.

Guangdada is a monitoring platform dedicated to overseas-distributed Chinese-language short dramas and short-form content, tracking key performance indicators such as viewership, user interaction, and advertising performance. Playlet, supported by professional production teams operating across multiple countries and a fully integrated internal content production system, has established a stable presence in the global vertical short drama market, serving millions of mobile users worldwide. Together, the platform metrics and distribution infrastructure illustrate the series’ communication efficiency and audience resonance in overseas markets.

Ball and life sparks festival intrigue

In contrast, Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life, for which Liu also served as sound mixer, followed an independent film festival distribution path. The film held its global premiere in 2025 at The TCL Chinese Theatre, Auditorium 6, during the Golden State Film Festival. The venue is widely regarded as a symbolically significant professional exhibition space within the film industry. The film was also selected by the Beyond Hollywood International Film Festival, receiving nominations for Best Narrative Feature and Best New Director. The festival emphasizes that official selection itself represents professional recognition and guarantees at least one award nomination for each selected film, with a judging panel comprising professionals with over 40 years of combined industry experience.

Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life

Following its premiere, Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life continued to receive recognition at independent film festivals across multiple cities. It won Best Sports Film at the Calgary Independent Film Festival, which has been named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.” The film was also nominated for Best Emerging Short Film at the Cal Film Festival in Los Angeles, whose past award recipients include Academy Award–nominated actor Paul Raci. Additionally, the film received the Best Ensemble Performance Award at the Indie Vegas Film Festival, an event operated by a professional team with extensive industry experience.

In 17 Heartbreaks When Love Has No Voice, emotional progression relies heavily on subtle sonic details such as breathing, fabric movement, and ambient reverberation. As sound mixer, Mengting Liu ensured that these “near-silent” moments retained clear emotional direction through precise noise control and careful preservation of mid-frequency clarity. She deliberately avoided using music as a substitute for narrative development, maintaining the work’s restrained and introspective tonal quality.

Layered sound shapes the film

By comparison, Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life features numerous ensemble scenes and moments of conflict, placing higher demands on spatial layering and rhythmic control in sound design. Liu addressed these challenges through meticulous separation and management of multi-track audio elements, allowing action details and live reactions to layer naturally and respond to one another. Her sound treatment reinforced the film’s editing rhythm and ensured overall coherence between sound and image.

Mengting Liu, Sound Mixer

Taken together, both productions achieved measurable outcomes across festival recognition and platform performance. 17 Heartbreaks When Love Has No Voice demonstrated clear audience reach and engagement metrics, while Bola at Buhay / Ball and Life secured multiple selections, nominations, and awards within the independent film festival circuit. These achievements not only reflect the collective execution of their respective creative teams but also underscore Mengting Liu’s foundational role as a sound mixer, particularly in terms of technical stability and distribution adaptability.

Looking ahead, Liu has stated that she will continue to pursue a dual strategy combining standardized workflows with context-specific sound adaptation. By maintaining stylistic consistency while enhancing audio performance across diverse playback environments, she aims to provide professional, scalable sound solutions for a broader range of high-quality audiovisual productions.