Sixteen new Singapore short films get their festival screenings this weekend, in three Singapore Panorama programmes at Filmhouse from Friday (23 October) to Sunday (25 October). The Singapore International Film Festival’s Singapore Panorama line-up puts all three in Filmhouse’s Redrum hall at Golden Mile Tower, with a General Film Ticket at S$15.
Most of the films are world premieres. The section is SGIFF’s home for new work by Singapore filmmakers at every stage of their careers, and this year’s selection runs from a BTO-ballot malaise to a death-row drama.
Programme 1: There’s Gotta Be More
Friday 23 October, 6.30pm. 86 minutes, rated NC16. The theme is the 9-to-5, the BTO ballot and the moment someone notices a crack in the plan.
- Everything’s Peachy, Nah Yee Chern, 8 min, NC16, Singapore premiere: a kitchen hand lands a job with the head chef she idolises, then finds a grisly secret.
- It’s Not Sweet, Cheryl Wong, 12 min, PG, world premiere: an 11-year-old and his sister may only eat watermelon the day before his birthday buffet.
- Adrift/A Rift, Enze Kay, 10 min, PG, world premiere: a relationship comes apart against a beach-resort montage.
- Daphne as Woman (Crying), Maximilian Liang, 14 min, PG, world premiere: an audition turns confessional when a casting assistant pushes too far.
- Low-Hanging Fruit, Chong Lii, 19 min, PG13, world premiere: a trans woman tries to sell two mysterious artefacts on the black market.
- Singaporeans at Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seth Cheong, 8 min, PG13, world premiere: a filmmaker in Seoul imagines the crowd talking like Singaporeans.
- Coast to Coast, Megan Lim En, 15 min, PG, world premiere: a civil servant’s errand to fix the office printer becomes an odyssey across the island.
Programme 2: Second Life, Second Skin
Saturday 24 October, 7pm. 58 minutes, rated M18. This block leans into genre, with bodies, skins and old selves coming undone.
- Kiss Me Climax, Shara Tay, 5 min, M18, Southeast Asian premiere: a manga chapter sends Angel into her own imagination.
- Subterranea, Ash Goh Hua, 14 min, PG13, world premiere: a bored teenager feels Singapore’s natural world start to rumble.
- REANIMATOR, Syahmi Iman, 6 min, PG, world premiere: a filmmaker taxidermies a dead bee to face a childhood fear of bugs.
- Orang Minyak, Leon Cheo, 18 min, NC16, world premiere: on his 16th birthday at the beach, Rayyan finds oil stains on his body.
- Encik, Ewan Leong, 15 min, NC16, world premiere: an army warrant officer implicated in a young serviceman’s death questions the institution he has served.
Programme 3: Borders / Barriers
Sunday 25 October, 1.30pm. 82 minutes, rated R21. Four films about the walls people keep up, and what they keep out.
- Son Of A, Jacob Tan, 19 min, PG, world premiere: a Vietnamese child turns up at a father-and-son hawker stall.
- Dazing Gaze, Daryl Cheong, Singapore and Malaysia, 17 min, R21, world premiere: a Grindr match takes two men across the border for a night.
- Her Silence, Lionel Seah, Singapore and Australia, 17 min, PG, Asian premiere: a student’s parents visit her in Sydney.
- What Remains at Dawn, Nicholas Tan, Taiwan and Singapore, 29 min, R21, world premiere: two sisters spend a decade fighting to save their brother, who writes poetry on death row.
Tickets and getting in
Each programme is sold as one screening at the S$15 General Film Ticket price, on sgiff.com only. Students, national servicemen and seniors aged 55 and above get S$2 off.
Admission follows the programme rating, so Sunday’s screening is R21 even though Son Of A and Her Silence carry a PG rating on their own. Filmhouse checks IDs at the door against the age on the day itself.
Filmhouse is on Level 5 of Golden Mile Tower at 6001 Beach Road, not Golden Mile Complex down the street. Redrum is not wheelchair-friendly: its seats sit up two flights of stairs. Filmhouse asks wheelchair users who can be helped up to email [email protected] at least a day ahead and arrive 30 minutes early for early entry.
