A toast to Southeast Asian cinema
A champion of Southeast Asian independent cinema, the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) returns for its 32nd edition in theater-only from Nov. 25 to Dec. 5. This year’s festival will present a diverse, inclusive range of over 100 films by filmmakers from all over the world. These carefully selected films speak of memories, emotions, inspired conversations and discussions—that together celebrate the rejuvenation and continuity of film and storytelling in the cinematic community.
“Legacy through a New Lens” program director Thong Kay Wee’s goal for his inaugural festival lineup was to build on the festival’s legacy while introducing fresh perspectives to excite existing and new audiences. “As the largest and longest-running film event in Singapore, SGIFF has the greatest capacity to engage the widest local interest in cinema. We need to use this potential to cultivate a deeper and more diverse appreciation of film culture within our society,” says Thong. “I wish to foster more curiosities, encourage more audiences to embrace different positionalities, and express a principle that humanity vis-à-vis cinema can always be open-ended when we choose to think beyond the lines of regionality and boundaries. We gather in the theaters again simply to enjoy and understand one another better.” In this vein, the 32nd festival lineup is presented across five new sections, expressed by different positionings, to better profile the films based on the nature of their content.
SGIFF also retains the beloved Singapore Panorama category, highlighting local filmmaking talent, which has strengthened in numbers for SGIFF 2021 with 23 local films being showcased, including Scene UnSeen by the late Abdul Nizam and his friends, and Mat Magic by Mat Sentol and John Calvert. The latter is a 1971 Cathay-Keris classic, 50th anniversary, newly restored film by the Asian Film Archive. As an affirmation of the festival’s commitment to promoting Asian cinema and forging new relationships in the region, five regional co-production feature films will also be presented: Anatomy of Time, Yuni, Whether the Weather is Fine, Rehana Maryam Noor, as well as this year’s opening film Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash. Opening Films Explore Machismo and Memories The Opening Film for this year’s festival, Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is a riotous, black comedy-drama that explores the prevalence of toxic masculinity. Directed by Indonesian wunderkind Edwin, the film is an adaptation of Man Booker-nominated Eka Kurniawan’s bestselling book.
“I have been following SGIFF since 2004, and showed my first short film A Very Slow Breakfast. To now be able to open the festival almost two decades later is an amazing, serendipitous feeling,” beams Edwin. “In fact, it was SGIFF that introduced me to Southeast Asian cinema and correspondingly, a network of peers who are now friends. Within our region, we speak different languages and have different cultures, but we are connected by the same feelings, tastes, voices, memories, and dreams. I very much look forward to seeing more Southeast Asian cinema on the world stage.”
Edwin and Kurniawan co-wrote the screenplay, and the film won the Golden Leopard for Best Film category at the 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival (2021). It is also a recipient of IMDA and the Singapore Film Commission’s (SFC) Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant. Presented alongside the opening film is this year’s festival-commissioned short Dreaming by Nelson Yeo, who won Best Singapore Short Film at the 2020 Silver Screen Awards for his work Here Is Not There. The 15-minute film looks at the reunion of three old friends that reignites a love triangle.
More than 100 films will be screened across six cinemas in Singapore during the 11-day festival, representing works from more than 40 countries with strong representation from Southeast Asia.
Every year, SGIFF honors and recognizes the exceptional contributions of filmmakers, whose iconic works have helped shape Asian cinema, at the Silver Screen Awards. This year’s Asian Feature Film Competition presents 10 new films by directors making their first to third features. With entries such as Rehana Maryam Noor by Abdullah Mohammad Saad, the first film from Bangladesh to officially screen at Cannes and co-produced by Singapore producer Jeremy Chua, the dynamism of the region is fully expressed through each film’s distinct localism and diversity of style. Likewise, the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition presents 23 new films across five programs, offering a nuanced overview of the region while accentuating the complexities and specificities located within.
For the very first time, SGIFF will be awarding the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to Southeast Asian Cinema Award to Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC), for their exceptional work in elevating regional cinema. An intensive script and development incubator for Southeast Asian filmmakers, SEAFIC has helped to advance, strengthen, and refine the quality of feature-length scripts and projects from the region. Besides filmmaking, the award takes into consideration resource-building, heritage preservation and promotion, among others.
“At SGIFF, we are reminded every day of the passionate individuals in the film community who work so hard together to bring you on a cinematic storytelling journey. For SGIFF 2021, we want to celebrate the necessary persistence of storytelling as a mobius strip that twists, curls, and bends, carrying on as an infinite loop — represented through this year’s festival key visual,” says Emily J. Hoe, executive director. “If 2020 was the year we stepped out of our comfort zones to make SGIFF a hybrid format, I am proud to say we have come full circle, emerging stronger than ever and taking the gathering back to the cinemas, where we experience the true magic of film.” The 32nd SGIFF will be hosted across multiple festival venues, with screenings at Filmgarde Bugis+, Carnival Cinema at Golden Mile Tower, Golden Village Grand, Oldham Theatre, National Museum of Singapore, and Shaw Lido; talks and panels will be held at The Arts House and The Projector; and Film Academy sessions at Lasalle College of the Arts, Nanyang Technological University and Wild Rice.
SGIFF is an event of the Singapore Media Festival (SMF), hosted by Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA). Priority sale tickets for SGIFFriends are available for purchase at SGIFF.com from Nov. 8, 12 p.m. Official ticket sales commence Nov. 9, 12 p.m.
www.sgiff.com.