Singapore Chinese Film Festival 20166 min read
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe 2016 Singapore Chinese Film Festival (SCFF), jointly organised by the Singapore Film Society (SFS) and SIM University’s UniSIM Centre for Chinese Studies, will be held for 10 days from 29 April ““ 8May. The selection this year consists of 16 narrative feature films, 10 documentaries and 36 short films, making it a total of 62 titles. Here are some highlights of the films that will be screened:
Chinese Panorama
“¢ Award-winning films such as Blind Massage (won Best Picture at the 51st Golden Horse Awards, and Silver Bear at the Berlinale 2014), A Fool(wonBest New Director and Best Actor at the 51st Golden Horse Awards), Thanatos, Drunk (won four awards including Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards), Zinnia Flower(won Best Actress at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards), McDull: Me & My Mom (won Best Animation at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards) and Wolf Totem. (won Best Director and Best Visual Effects at the 5th Beijing International Film Festival)
“¢ Debut feature films by up-and-coming filmmakers such as A Simple Goodbye by Degena Yun, Seven Days by Xing Jian, What’s In The Darkness by Wang Yichun, The Left Ear by Alec Su, and First of May by Chou Ko-Tai.
“¢ Elena”“ the follow up to Taiwanese director Lin Jing Jie’s The Most Distant Course. Director Lin and his producer will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A with the audience.
Documentary Vision
“¢ The Chinese Mayor won the Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary in 2015. That was also director Zhou Hao’s second Golden Horse Award in a row, after winning the same award for his documentary, Cotton, in 2014.
“¢ The Walkers ““ 10 years in the making, this film is director Singing Chen’s tribute to renowned Taiwanese choreographer Lin Lee-chen and her Legend Lin Dance Theatre.
Chinese Shorts Showcase
“¢ SCFF2016 Opening Film: Chinese Shortcuts ““ this is a selection of award-winning shorts from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore which includes Death of a Security Guard by Cheng Wei-hao (won Best Short Film at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards), Time To Dieby Wang Tong, My Father After Dinner directed by Gladys Ng (won Best Singapore Short Award at the 26th Singapore International Film Festival), and the world premiere of Singapore animated film Lak Bo Ki directed by Ang Qing Sheng. Directors Wang Tong, Gladys Ng and Ang Qing Sheng will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A with the audience.
“¢ Ten Years (winner of Best Film at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards) ““a collection of five short stories which hypothesise Hong Kong’s future.
“¢ Day & Night”“a portmanteau of three short films by Malaysian filmmakers Ho Yuhang, Charlotte Lim and Yeo Joon Han, reflecting their personal feelings about the health of the Malaysian society. Directors Charlotte Lim and Yeo Joon Han will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A with the audience.
“¢ Best of Freshwave International Short Film Festival 2006 ““ 2015 ““ This segment selects ten of the best award-winning short films to commemorate 10 Years of The Fresh Wave Short Film Competition by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council which promotes local short films and supports young film talents in Hong Kong. Director Jevons Au (Trivisia, 10 Years) will be in attendance at the Q&A session for his debut short film Merry X’mas, which won the Freshwave Award in 2007.
“¢ Are We Dust In the Wind”“an initiative by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture to promote reading of literature among the common people. It presents a series of films adapted from Taiwanese classic literature, featuring the works of renowned writers such as Chu Tien Wen, Ko Yu-fen, Chang Hui-ching, Chi Chi, Liu Da-ren and Liao Yu-hui. The filmmakers include Cheng Wen-tang, Wang Shaudi and Wang Ming-tai.
About Chinese Cinema
This is a newly curated segment featuring films that explore the history, personalities, influence and social and cultural impact of Chinese Cinema.
“¢ FaceTaiwan: Power of Taiwan Cinema”“ through extensive research and interviews with several prominent Taiwanese filmmakers such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Sylvia Chang and Chi Po-lin, this film chronicles the development of Taiwan cinema in the past three decades, and explores its cultural value and artistic achievements. Renowned film festival curator and producer Jane Yu will be in attendance to present the film.
“¢ Biographical documentaries of filmmakers such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Jia Zhangke. Interestingly, two films are directed by non-Chinese filmmakers: Oliver Assayas directed Un Portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien while Walter Salles paid his tribute in Jia Zhangke: A Guy from Fenyang. Another biographical documentary, Zhou Lan-Ping ~ His Life and Music, follows a daughter tracing the footsteps of her beloved father, the late film composer Zhou Lan-Ping.
“¢ Films that explore the entire milieu of Chinese cinema and society during its time in history, such as A Moment In Time, The Golden Gate Girls and Center Stage. Oscar- winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang of A Moment In Time and Louisa Wei of The Golden Gate Girls will be in attendance to present their films. We are also proud to present a director’s cut of Center Stage as the Closing Film of SCFF2016.
In addition to film screenings, two Chinese Talkies panel discussions will be held. The first panel discussion, Spotlight on Hong Kong Independent Filmmaking, on 1 May, 2 pm, at *SCAPE Gallery will feature writer-directors Kiwi Chow (A Complicated Story, Ten Years) and Jevons Au (Trivisia, Ten Years) as well as producer Andrew Choi (Final Project, Ten Years) who will share their experiences in independent filmmaking and their views and aspirations for Hong Kong cinema. The second panel discussion, Documentary Directors Documenting Chinese Cinema, will be held on 8May, 2pm, at Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore, and will feature documentary filmmakers Ruby Yang (A Moment In Time), Louisa Wei (Golden Gate Girls),and Jane Yu (Face Taiwan: Power of Taiwan Cinema) with local filmmaker Eva Tang (The Songs We Sang) as the moderator.
It is our pleasure to be working with several first-time festival partners, such as *SCAPE Media as our programme partner for the Chinese Talkies panel discussion on Hong Kong Independent Filmmaking ,and with LASALLE College of the Arts as our school partner in producing the festival trailer and animated idents that will be played before each film screening.
Our festival guests will be hosted by Dorsett Singapore, our official hotel partner.”Dorsett Singapore is honoured to be the official festival hotel partner for Singapore Chinese Film Festival. It resonates with our vision of bringing Asian-inspired hospitality to the world and with our hotel’s strategic location in the iconic heritage precinct of Chinatown, we are pleased to extend our support to the Chinese film talents,” said Philip Wong, General Manager of Dorsett
Singapore. “Harmoniously, we look forward to collective efforts in contributing to the arts and cultural community in Singapore.
National Museum of Singapore is the official venue supporter of SCFF2016 while Golden Village and The Arts House are the venue partners for the festival film screenings.
For media queries and interviews, kindly contact SCFF Co-Festival Directors: David Lee, Vice Chairman, Singapore Film Society (davidlee@sfs.org.sg) and
Associate Professor Foo Tee Tuan, Deputy Director, UniSIM Centre for Chinese Studies, SIM University (ttfoo@unisim.edu.sg).
For more information on screening schedules and latest programme updates, visit: Official Site
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Ticketing information (Advance ticket sales starts from 14 April):
$13: General Public
$10: SFS members and UniSIM staff, students and alumni
For festival screenings at Golden Village Suntec City and Golden Village VivoCity, purchase tickets here.
