Singapore Film Festival to be held in Delhi

The third Singapore Film Festival will take place at the India Habitat Centre here next month.

Organised by the Singapore High Commission in association with the Habitat Film Club, the August 5-7 event will feature a diverse mix of films specially selected to showcase Singapore’s creative talents. 

"In India, Singapore carries an image of a cosmopolitan, technology-enabled nation. Through the Singapore Film Festival, we hope to show a softer and artistic side of our country," Kester Tay, festival programmer and First Secretary at the Singapore High Commission, said. 

"We have come a long way as a young, migrant nation and have many unique stories to tell. We hope they would touch Indian audiences and deepen understanding between our cultures," Tay added. 

The festival will open with "7 Letters", Singapore's official entry to the Oscars' Best Foreign Language Film category this year. The film features seven of Singapore's top filmmakers who made seven short films, or "love letters", on what Singapore means to them. 

They include award-winning filmmakers Eric Khoo and Boo Junfeng, whose film "The Apprentice" showed in the Un Certain Regard section at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The screening will be followed by a dialogue with filmmaker K. Rajagopal, whose offering in "7 Letters" focuses on the Indian migrant experience in Singapore. 

Rajagopal remains Singapore's main artiste who makes films with an Indian perspective. 

"Singapore Minstrel", a film on Singapore's street performers, will screen on August 6. The film revolves around Roy Payamal, a veteran Singaporean busker of Indian origin. Directed by Ng Xi Jie, it dives deep into Payamal's life and art. 

The screening will be followed by a dialogue with Payamal and Jie, herself a multi-disciplinary artist who works in the fields of performance, literature, illustration and cinema.

The festival will conclude with "Utter", a series of three animation shorts based on three literary works by Singapore authors. The film premiered at the Singapore Writers' Festival 2015 to critical acclaim. 

The screening will be followed by a workshop by internationally-celebrated animation artist Tan Wei Keong, who will speak on Singapore's animation industry and his creative process and craftsmanship.