The festival will screen 146 films from 51 countries, and will honour Mohsen Makhmalbaf (pictured) with a five-film tribute.
Singapore International Film Festival (Nov 26 - Dec 6) has unveiled the full line-up for its 26th edition, comprising 146 films from 51 countries across 11 sections.
The festival will open with the international premiere of Cheng Yu-chieh and Lekal Sumi’s Panay and for the first time will do without a closing film.
The winner of the newly created audience choice award as well as the best film from the Silver Screen Awards will have repeat screenings on the last day of the festival instead.
‘We’re ending the festival in a different way, celebrating with two winning films,’ said SGIFF executive director Yuni Hadi, who splits the programming duties with festival director Zhang Wenjie.
A total of 10 Asian films will vye for the Silver Screen Awards. They are:
- Black Hen, Min Bahadur Bham
- Dirty Romance, Lee Sang-woo
- The Fourth Direction, Gurvinder Singh
- Happy Hour, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
- The House By The Bamboo Grove, Alvin Yapan
- The Kids, Sunny Yu
- Paradise, Sina Ataeian Dena
- Poet On A Business Trip, Ju Anqi
- Snow Pirates, Faruk Hacihafizoglu
- Tikkun, Avishai Sivan
Filipino director Brillante Mendoza will serve as jury head, along with jury members Ivy Ho of Hong Kong-based Irresistible Films, Karel Och of Karlovy International Film Festival and Oh Jung-wan of South Korea’s Bom Film.
Highlights
World premieres from the Singapore Panorama include multi-disciplinary artist Ng Xi Jie’s first feature Singapore Minstrel, a documentary on the art of busking; The Songs We Sang, the first feature documentary on Singapore’s Xinyao music movement by Eva Tang; and Sanif Olek’s Voluptus, an uninhibited portrayal of a broken heart.
Gala screenings from Special Presentation include local auteur Eric Khoo’s In the Room and Lee Chung’s first feature The Laundryman.
The Spotlight on Mexican Cinema highlights works by four emerging Mexican directors, including Gabriel Ripstein, Javier Espada, Ernesto Contreras and Celso Garcia.
Special programme Between Visible and Invisible - Alternative Vision of Chinese Independent Documentary includes Luo Li’s Li Wen At East Lake and the Asian premiere of Qiu Jiongjiong’s Mr Zhang Believes.
The Southeast Asian Film Lab, Jury & Critics Programme and Southeast Asian short film competition within the Silver Screen Awards, all launched last year, will return this year.
Masterclasses
Various masterclasses and talks will be held by the likes of Terence Chang (who is the head of the Southeast Asian Film Lab), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (whose Cemetery of Splendour will screen in Asian Vision section), Mohsen Makhmalbaf (who is the recipient of this year’s Honourary Award and the focus of a five-film tribute) and actress Michelle Yeoh (who is the recipient of the new Cinema Legend Award).
SGIFF is the longest running international film platform in South East Asia. It is organized by the non-profit organization Singapore International Film Festival Ltd and is part of Singapore Media Festival hosted by the Media Development Authority.
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