What To Watch Out For At The Singapore International Film Festival

All eyes of the region’s film industry are on our little red dot as the 28^th Singapore Film Festival showcases 112 motion pictures this month. Starting 23 November, this film extravaganza casts a spotlight on Asian productions, zooming in on the evolution of cinematography, filmmakers and unconventional ways of storytelling—like Dragonfly Eyes by Chinese director Xu Bing, a melodramatic story edited down from 10,000 hours of actual surveillance videos.

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The festival is also celebrating the 15th anniversary of Singaporean social satires with two distinctive films of local cinema: Jack Neo's I Not Stupid and Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen's TalkingCock The Movie—both of which aired in 2002.

Plus, the 28th SGIFF is introducing, for the first time, a theme to its Classic section, Secrets Spies Never Die!, to take a closer look into the world Asian suspenseful espionage films.

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In conjunction with SGIFF till 17 December, the ArtScience Museum is presenting Specters and Tourists, a moving image exhibition by Japanese movie maker and artist, Daisuke Miyazaki. The first of the two-part film installation, Specters weaves pieces from Miyazaki’s previous creations into a spectacle of isolation, anxiety and monotony of urban life, while the latter, Tourists, reveals a temporary freedom shot in Singapore, where travellers lose all internet connectivity only to find themselves interesting new encounters in uncovered places.

Besides the cinematic action on screens, the red carpet will be glittering with even more star power: The likes of Hollywood/Bollywood director Shekhar Kapur, Life of Pi actor Irrfan Khan, legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Hong Kong filmmaker Jenny Suen and award-winning Vietnamese-born French film director Tran Anh Hung will be attending SGIFF gala nights at Capitol Theatre and Marina Bay Sands. International sports icon and Sands ambassador David Beckham will also be here to attend a benefit dinner in support of one of the integrated resorts' designated charities. So keep a look out!

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