Girl, the directorial debut of acclaimed Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, is set to open the 36th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which
Girl, the directorial debut of acclaimed Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, is set to open the 36th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), which will spotlight female-driven stories in its Landmark section and honour Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta and Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung.
The festival will run from November 26 to December 7, screening more than 120 films from over 45 countries.
Shu Qi is due to attend the opening night gala alongside lead actor Bai Xiao-Ying and actor-singer 9m88. Her 1980s coming-of-age drama premiered in competition at Venice before playing Toronto and winning best director at Busan.
Shu Qi will also take part in an In Conversation session with Singapore actress and SGIFF festival ambassador Rebecca Lim. The Taiwanese star is also in Bi Gan’s Cannes-winning Resurrection, which will play in SGIFF’s Undercurrent section for experimental filmmaking.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mehta will be the first female recipient to receive the Cinema Honorary Award, SGIFF’s highest accolade. A retrospective showcase titled Deepa Mehta in Focus will be held as part of the festival’s Landmark section dedicated to newly restored classics. These include her acclaimed Elements trilogy (1996-2005) – Fire, Earth and Water, as well as 2020’s Funny Boy, a Sri Lanka-set coming-of-age story.
The Screen Icon Award, which honours outstanding Asian actors, will go to its first South Korean recipient, Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung. With a career spanning more than five decades in film and TV, she is renowned for her fearless portrayals of women who defy convention and societal expectations, most memorably as a scheming maid in 1971’s Woman Of Fire and her international breakthrough as the spirited grandmother of a Korean-American family in 2020’s Minari.
The latter role garnered her global recognition and numerous accolades, including best supporting actress at the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Baftas, a historic first for a Korean actress. Both Mehta and Youn will attend a separate In Conversation session.
The Landmark section will also spotlight female-driven stories that challenge social conventions and explore transgressive desires. The selection includes restored classics such as 1968’s The Arch by Tang Shushuen, Hong Kong’s first female film director; 1978’s Gehenu Lamai (The Girls) by Sumitra Peries, Sri Lanka’s first female filmmaker; and 1985’s The Razor’s Edge by Jocelyne Saab, Lebanon’s pioneering female filmmaker.
The Foreground section of genre-driven works will open with Adam Sillard’s Arco, a futuristic family-friendly adventure in hand-drawn animation. It will also host the festival’s second red-carpet event, a special presentation of This City Is A Battlefield, which will be attended by Indonesian director Mouly Surya together with lead actors Chicco Jerikho, Ariel Tatum and Jerome Kurnia.
As previously announced, the Asian competition will comprise 10 titles with a jury led by Argentina’s Lucrecia Martel.
Beyond film screenings, the festival is dedicated to nurturing and championing local and regional talent through its industry-led SGIFF Pro platform, which encompasses the Asian Producers Network and second edition of SGIFF Industry Days conference event.
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