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It has been an extraordinary year for Singapore cinema, which has seen a flurry of features by local directors break new ground on the global stage.
Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers became the first Singaporean film ever selected to play in Competition at the Berlinale. Animation The Violinist, co-directed local filmmaker Ervin Han and Spain’s Raul Garcia, became the country’s first title to play in Annecy’s main competition, scooping the Cristal award for best film. Ah Girl, the feature directorial debut of Ang Geck Geck Priscilla, also picked up trophies at Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Bangkok. All three were made with support from the Singapore government, received their North American premieres at Toronto and are vying for top prizes at the upcoming Golden Horse Awards.
At Locarno, Nelson Yeo moved up to the festival’s main competition with The House On The Moon, having won the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present section with Dreaming & Dying in 2023.
“Singapore cinema has levelled up in terms of international recognition,” says Chen. “I’m proud of our generation of filmmakers. We’ve come a long way and are punching above our weight.”
He was the first Singapore filmmaker to be recognised at Cannes with short Ah Ma’s special mention in 2007, followed by the Camera d’Or in 2013 for his acclaimed feature debut Ilo Ilo. Chen’s latest, We Are All Strangers, produced by his company Giraffe Pictures, is Singapore’s Oscar submission.
The filmmaker is also proud of the growing number of successful cross-border co-productions directed by foreign directors and co-produced by Singapore-based producers. “Engaging in co-productions is not just an artistic choice, but a strategic necessity,” he says. “It allows us to pool rebeyond our home ground is for personal growth too — to be challenged into developing the canvas.”
Singapore’s small market size is a fundamental constraint, with a total population of six million. Nevertheless, one distinct advantage is that the multilingual, multicultural city-state excels at connecting different markets and partners.
“We are a small country with a very fragile ecosystem,” says Chen. “Without the SFC [Singapore Film Commission] and IMDA [Infocomm Media Development Authority], many of our stories wouldn’t get told. It is the bedrock on which a lot of our careers are built.”
Strong partnerships
IMDA has been instrumental in nurturing local talent and building Singapore as a trusted creative partner and co-production hub. Since 2023, some 40 Singapore co-productions that partnered with Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, France and Germany, have played in competition in top festivals.
Among them are Thailand’s A Useful Ghost and Malaysia’s Tiger Stripes. Both were Cannes Critics’ Week grand prize winners, produced by Singapore’s Tan Si En and Fran Borgia respectively. Further titles are 2023 Cannes Camera d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shellfrom Vietnam and 2024 Camera d’Or special mention Mongrel from Taiwan, produced by Jeremy Chua and Lai Weijie respectively. Lai is also behind this year’s Cannes title 9 Temples To Heaven, also from Thailand.
“Over the past two decades, Singapore’s filmmaking landscape has become markedly more international, collaborative and multi-platform, and IMDA has worked to develop the talent, build the capabilities and open the market pathways that make this possible,” says Yvonne Tang, who took on the role of IMDA assistant chief executive for the media industry group in early 2025.
Last December, IMDA launched an ambitious $156m (s$200m), three-year Talent Accelerator Programme. It supports the full value chain across both the film and TV industries, from development, production and distribution to direct engagement with buyers and commissioners, and helps support with funding and marketing.
“Government support is an important enabler, but it’s one part of a wider ecosystem,” says Tang. “IMDA’s role is to address market development gaps and help Singapore talent and companies build sustainable careers and businesses — not simply to finance individual productions.”
The new scheme is a big jump from the $23.4m (s$30m) International Co-Production Fund announced in 2023 and the Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant in 2019. Under the new scheme, the categories for Asia co-productions and global co-productions will receive a larger grant of up to $470,000 (s$600,000) and $937,000 (s$1.2m) respectively.
“The new framework places greater emphasis on scale, meaningful participation by Singapore talent, distribution commitments and a project’s commercial or international potential,” says producer Tan. “Southeast Asian projects can continue to access funding under the two categories, with significantly larger funding amounts than before.”
A Useful Ghost and Don’t Cry, Butterfly, the 2024 grand prix winner at Venice Critics’ Week, are two of the features Tan co-produced with the support of the Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant through her Singapore outfit Momo Film Co, part of Beach House Pictures and Fremantle.
Singapore has proven it can produce world-class filmmakers, and Tan feels the next stage should be about international reach. “Ultimately, I would love to see Singapore cinema become something that audiences around the world actively know and seek out.”
Outside of IMDA, Tan often works with international co-production funds, broadcasters, distributors, sales agents and private equity. Coincidentally, films that she co-produced this year — Cannes competitor Nagi Notes, Sundance competitor Levitating and Busan title Red Thread— are not funded by IMDA’s usual co-production schemes, but through her network of private financing. The House On The Moon is supported by a different IMDA scheme, the Virtual Production Innovation Fund.
Tan’s own long-term goal is to build a stronger company that can continuously create its own opportunities, employ Singapore talent consistently and become less reliant on government support.
“Making a great film is only one part of the equation,” says Tan. “Distribution and marketing need to evolve too. We often spend years and lots of money making a film and then comparatively little time or money thinking about how to create an audience for it.”
The Violinist is a rare 2D animated feature from Singapore, and Han and Garcia’s labour of love was 10 years in the making. “Singapore doesn’t have an established financing ecosystem for animated features,” says Han. “There was no conventional path for a film of this scale. IMDA’s support was crucial, giving us an important foundation and credibility, but it didn’t suddenly make the rest of the financing easy. We still spent years putting the pieces together through private investment, international partners, public funding and eventually sales.”
Singapore remained the creative centre of the co-production with Spain and Italy. A core team of animators worked at Han’s Singapore-based Robot Playground Media, supported by hundreds of artists around the world including from Colombia and Vietnam. Final post-production was completed in Singapore.
Commenting on the historic Annecy wins, Han says: “One film doesn’t create or transform an industry. The real significance will only become clear if The Violinist makes the next animation a little easier to believe in, finance and make.
“We need greater continuity. We also shouldn’t think only about making the films. We need to become better at taking them to the world through festivals, sales, distribution and international partnerships.”
Upcoming IMDA-backed projects include producer-turned-director Huang Junxiang’s Build To Order, which is in production, and Half Lives, directed by Seah Wee Thye and produced byCharlyn Ng (Ah Girl), which is set to start filming by late 2026. Both projects are recipients of IMDA’s New Talent Film Grant for emerging Singapore directors.
Singapore International Film Festival
Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) takes place from October 21-November 1, a month earlier then usual in a bid to offer an optimal window for independent films before the surge of year-end Hollywood tentpoles.
“This strategic move reaffirms SGIFF’s commitment to enhance visibility for independent world cinema, while supporting distributors and filmmakers in boosting audience engagement beyond the festival itself,” says Jeremy Chua, who was promoted to the festival’s executive director role in February.
The 37th edition will open with Hur Jin-ho’s The Assassin(s), following its world premiere at Toronto, and close with Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Vintage Violence. The Screen Icon Award will be presented to Aamir Khan alongside a 25th anniversary screening of Oscar-nominated Lagaan, while Hirokazu Koreeda will receive the Cinema Honorary Award with a screening of his new film Look Back.
Further prominent guests include this year’s competition jury head Yim Soon-rye, and visiting filmmakers Koji Fukada, Akiko Ashizawa and Tom Harari, who will present masterclasses at the festival’s Industry Days, now in its third edition. There are also roundtables with film financiers, commissioners and world sales agents, including Daniel Negret (Causeway Films), Ellen Eliasoph (Perfect Village Entertainment), Gabor Greiner (Films Boutique), Boris Pugnet (Space Odyssey), Xinyu Zhou (Impact Films) and Kurt Rieder (Warner Bros).
The launch of IMDA’s Talent Accelerator Programme means “SGIFF is adapting its industry activities to create better synergies with the opportunities that Singaporean companies can offer to international co-productions”, says Chua.
The Pitching Forum is expanded across three targeted tracks: as a formal mechanism for Asian Producers Network’s cohort projects; international projects seeking Southeast Asian co-production partners and financing; and Singaporean projects seeking outward international collaboration.
The SGIFF Film Fund will be relaunched in November after a temporary hiatus. Two cash grants supported by the Tan Ean Kiam Foundation will be given to filmmakers from Southeast Asia. The short film funding for young talent will be increased, with a $7,800 (s$10,000) grant given to each of six short films at production stage, while the documentary funding shifts its focus to supporting the post-production of sociopolitical films, with a s$10,000 grant given to each of six feature documentaries in post-production or WIP stage.
