Known to raise awareness and propel the careers of filmmaking talents in Asia, the 28th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) announced its Silver Screen Awards’ jury panel for both Asian Feature Film Competition and Southeast Asian Short Film Competition today.
Shekhar Kapur, an established film director with a strong presence in both Indian and Western Cinema, will serve as the head juror for the Asian Feature Film Competition this year. No stranger to a juror’s role at international film festivals, Kapur has previously served on the jury of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, London Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. He first gained global recognition with his film Bandit Queen (1994), which won rave reviews after premiering at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. He then introduced Australian actress Cate Blanchett to the world in his two historical biopics of Queen Elizabeth –Elizabeth (1998), which won six BAFTA Awards and seven nominations at the Academy Awards, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) that saw two Academy Award nominations, and walked away with one win.
A man of many talents, Kapur went beyond films and collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber to co-create the West End musical Bombay Dreams.
Joining Kapur on the jury are Hong Kong filmmaker Clara Law (Autumn Moon, 1992 and The Goddess of 1967, 2000), Iranian-American screenwriter and director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, 2014) and Head of Programming at the Locarno Film Festival Mark Peranson.
For the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition, Programming Director of the Asian Future section at Tokyo International Film Festival Kenji Ishizaka will head the jury panel, which also includes Singapore filmmaker K. Rajagopal (A Yellow Bird, 2016) and Indonesian actress Marsha Timothy (Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, 2017).
In selecting these talents as the jury panel, SGIFF Executive Director Yuni Hadi said, “Our jury members are prominent and dynamic industry leaders in their own right. With their expertise and craftsmanship, we look forward to identifying talent and recognizing Asian features and Southeast Asian short films that stand out with their bold artistry and strong storytelling.”
Besides their jury duties for the Silver Screen Awards which will be held on Dec.2 at the Marina Bay Sands, some of the jury members, such as Shekhar Kapur and Clara Law, will also be conducting masterclasses during the Festival to interact and share their experiences with audiences. A series of short films by Ana Lily Amirpour including Six and A Half, her first and only film shot on film on Super 16mm, will also be screened as part of the Cinema Today section of the Festival.
The 28th SGIFF also announced a new Focus series as part of this year’s line-up – Histories of Tomorrow: Indonesian Cinema After the New Order. Through film screenings and a panel discussion during the Festival, the series will showcase filmmaking in Indonesia as an embodiment of its independent and community spirit. The selected films share the common theme as agents of change that engage with social reality through cinema, which rose in prominence after the New Order. To encourage dialogues and foster a stronger audience-creator relationship, Indonesian film practitioners including the Co-Curator of the Focus programme, Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu – who is also Editor-in-chief of Cinema Poetica and Member of Indonesian Film Board – will be in town to engage with festival goers through a panel discussion.
The SGIFF is an event of the Singapore Media Festival, hosted by Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA). SGIFF’s Official Sponsors include Presenting Sponsor since 2014, Marina Bay Sands; Official Festival Time Partner, IWC Schaffhausen; Official International Realtor, List Sotheby’s; Official Automobile, BMW and Official Airline, Singapore Airlines.
The full Festival line-up and ticketing details will be announced at the end of the month.