Singapore International Film Festival returns with 105 films from 45 countries

SINGAPORE – The 35th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) has announced a program of contemporary premieres and restored classics, focusing on themes of displacement, migration and the effects of artificial intelligence and technological transformation.

Mr Jeremy Chua, CEO of SGIFF, says filmmakers have been influenced in recent years by global trends such as “fate spinning” – social media users’ fixation on negative news.

“Doom scrolling is now part of our culture and the idea that people are being left behind by technological and economic changes,” he adds.

He spoke to The Straits Times on the sidelines of the Singapore Media Festival (SMF) press conference on October 28, held at the Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) office.

Citing films from this year’s SGIFF program that exemplify its themes, Mr. Chua includes the drama “Mongrel” by Taiwanese-Singaporean director Chiang Wei-liang and Taiwanese director Yin Yu-chiao. The film depicts the plight of exploited migrant workers in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Singaporean director Yeoh Siew Hua’s mystery thriller Strange Eyes explores the anxieties of life in the surveillance era.

This year’s program, which runs from November 28 to December 8, will feature 105 films from 45 countries, with 80 percent of the selected films hailing from Asia.

The festival opens with The Unfamiliar Eyes of Yeo, whose 2018 film Imaginary Land won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. The film stars Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng, whose career has spanned more than three decades since his debut in 1992’s Rebels of the Neon God.

Lee and Taiwanese actress Yang Kuei-mei will attend the SGIFF Screen Icons Awards. The two starred together in award-winning films such as the drama Long Live Love (1994) and the musical drama The Hole (1998), both directed by Malaysian-born Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang.