In recent years, a growing number of Southeast Asian films have been selected for high-profile festivals, winning meaningful prizes and international recognition. One of the prime movers in the rise of the region’s cinema is Singapore-based producer Jeremy Chua, now the new general manager of Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF, November 28-December 8).
“One big change in the last 10 years is how film festivals and commissioners started to provide opportunities for young directors and producers to travel, attend workshops and co‑produce with regional talent,” observes Chua. “This expanded knowledge and experience empowers filmmakers to make bolder choices and collaborate with new creative muses. It becomes an ecosystem that nurtures and enriches itself.”
Chua has himself produced and co-produced a raft of acclaimed independent films. These include Myanmar director The Maw Naing’s MA - Cry Of Silence, this year’s Busan New Currents winner; Pierce, which won Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe best director for Singapore’s Nelicia Low; and Vietnamese director Pham Thien An’s Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, Cannes’ 2023 Camera d’Or winner.
Outside Southeast Asia, Chua worked on Chinese director Qiu Yang’s Some Rain Must Fall, which played the Berlinale’s Encounters section this year, and Bangladeshi director Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s Rehana, which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2021.
Creative funding
The Southeast Asian region, which also consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, has always had distinctive artists and filmmakers. Now a younger generation is coming of age, with its own unique style and approach. Their works are often produced not by a single territory, but through a collaborative cross-country effort across Southeast Asia – often with soft funding from Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) and Europe, including funding from the CNC, the Hubert Bals Fund, the World Cinema Fund and Sorfond.
While the vast region has different socio-political and cultural circumstances, its cinema has inherent similarities, making it easy for filmmakers to join forces. “In terms of storytelling culture, we don’t subscribe to classical narrative. The stories that pass down through generations are not three-act structures,” says Chua. “The way we experience time is more abstract. Dreams, folklore and magic are part of our same subconscious. Our daily images revolve around architectures built around seascapes and tropical woodlands.”
It remains a challenge to get major theatrical releases in key territories worldwide, but the region’s global reach is growing with the help of international streamers. “The OTT market is like a validation that a director found a global audience,” says Chua. “This is sometimes enough to help finance the director’s next project and enable them to work with bigger budgets, more prominent actors or artistic collaborators in the hope of growing an even wider audience.”
Government support from Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Film Development Council of the Philippines are instrumental in facilitating regional and international collaborations. The funding pool is expected to expand further, with Malaysia and Thailand set to roll out new funding schemes. Nevertheless, relying too much on government support can be a double-edged sword.
“Government funding only means that a certain kind of film will get more opportunities to be developed and produced,” warns Chua. “For diversity to thrive, audiences need to be curious and invested in different methods and approaches of cinema production.
“But cinema attendances are low and distributors are not taking as much risk as before,” he adds. “All the marketing budget is going towards blockbusters. I’m concerned that arthouse cinema might slowly adapt to become formulaic and conventional in order to be sustainable. It would be ironic.”
A big part of Chua’s own development came from attending industry events at international film festivals. With his first edition as general manager of SGIFF, he aims to further empower and inspire filmmakers with the launch of Industry Days (December 3-5), a three-day conference that runs during SGIFF.
As many film commissioners in Southeast Asia now have co-production training workshops, Industry Days is positioned as a levelling-up programme. “From writing to international distribution, we have selected a line-up of speakers and decision-makers who are not the easiest people to meet, but are relevant and have experience in every aspect of high-quality filmmaking,” says Chua. Speakers include Syrian filmmaker Ossama Mohammed and Indian DoP Santosh Sivan.
Chua has handed the operations of his Singapore-based production company Potocol, which turned 10 this year, to his colleague Sam Chua Weishi, who produced Pierce. Together they are finishing post-production on Filipiñana by Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel.
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