(Left to right) Jury Chief Stanley Kwan, director Yeo Siew Hua, actress Luna Kwok, producer Fran Borgia, SGIFF Executive Director Yuni Hadi

A Land Imagined took home the main award on home soil yesterday at the 29th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) Silver Screen Awards. A Land Imagined kicked off its international film festival trail with winning the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival. This is also the first time a Singapore film has won Best Film in the SGIFF's Asian Feature Film Competition. Directed by Singaporean Yeo Siew Hua, his second feature film was unanimously selected by the jury out of a total of eight nominated features from across Asia.

Director Yeo Siew Hua receiving the prize from Stanley Kwan

The Mandarin thriller is Yeo’s sophomore feature and tells the tale of the disappearance of a migrant Chinese construction worker at a Singapore land reclamation site. The jury found that the film “combined clear and original vision, strong storytelling, and technical achievement in addressing an increasingly important issue not only to Singapore but to the world”.

Director Pham Thu Hang being congratulated 

The honour of Best Director went to Pham Thu Hang for her feature documentary The Future Cries Beneath Our Soil, a moving documentary that deftly captures the dark shadow of war and death present in even everyday conversation and simple gestures, set in Vietnam’s Quảng Tri province.

Producer Jaya Das and actress Pakija Begum receiving the Best Performance award on behalf of Manoranjoan Das

Manoranjoan Das took home the prize for Best Performance for his role of Suman in Bulbul Can Sing by Rima Das. The jury commended his performance “for the courage and vulnerability he infused in his character. Suman was brought to life with a subtlety and an innocence that moved the entire jury”.

Dayan by Iranian director Behrouz Nooranipour, a compelling drama which delves into the horrors of ISIS operations in Iranian Kurdistan, was accorded Special Mention at the awards this evening.

The winners of the Asian Feature Film Competition were decided by a panel of five jury members headed by lead figure of the Hong Kong New Wave, director Stanley Kwan. Joining him on the jury are Hollywood actor, director, and producer, Daniel Dae Kim; legendary Japanese cinematographer, Akiko Ashizawa; acclaimed Canadian film producer, Sylvain Corbeil; and Vietnamese-born French actress, costume, and production designer, Trần Nữ Yên Khê.

The Best Southeast Asian Short Film award from the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition this year went to A Million Years by first-time director Danech San, which illustrates the story of a young woman who enters a parallel riverfront with a stranger, and both recount stories of fear.

Director Aditya Ahmad receiving the award for Kado

Aditya Ahmad was awarded Best Director for his short film Kado (A Gift), which the jury deemed as “a sincere, deeply-felt film that does not provide easy answers but reveals the complexities of gender identity in Muslim communities”. The film was also awarded the Youth Jury Prize through the collective 15-member jury panel in the SGIFF Youth Jury & Critics Programme.

Chiang Wei Liang receiving his award for best Singapore Short Film

Luzon by Chiang Wei Liang, a flawlessly directed tale of two fishermen, one radioactive barrel, and the South China Sea, was awarded Best Singapore Short Film. The jury shared that the film is "a simple allegory that absurdly and succinctly highlights the socio-political tensions of the region”. Thai director Korakrit Arunanondchai’s short film With History In A Room Filled With People With Funny Names 4 was given the Special Mention award by the jury.

Legendary Director Rithy Panh receiving the Honorary Award

The Festival’s highest honour, the Honorary Award, was presented to one of the most internationally acclaimed Cambodian filmmakers today, Rithy Panh. The award was presented by Sebastian Tan, Chairperson, SGIFF, and Pimpaka Towira, Programme Director, SGIFF; in recognition of his prolific cinematic works as well as his dedication towards preserving Cambodia's film, photographic, and audio history through his cinematic and social projects over the past three decades. 

Cinema Legend Award recipient Joan Chen 

Joan Chen was presented with the Cinema Legend Award for her dedication to the entertainment industry, and her inspiring contribution to cinema, having starred in over 40 film and television roles. 

The Inspiring Woman in Film Award was awarded to celebrated Chinese actress, Luna Kwok. The award presented in partnership with Swarovski honours outstanding women in film. A director-turned-actress, Luna Kwok was recognised for her outstanding performance and for her non-conforming approach in her choice of acting roles, choosing the most challenging roles over merely glamourous ones. She played a leading role in Yeo Siew Hua’s A Land Imagined and won the Boccalino d’Oro Prize for Best Actress at the Locarno Festival. 

The Young Critic Award was presented to Ryan Lim from Nanyang Technological University. Never Been Kissed by Dao Thi Minh Trang was awarded the Most Promising Project of the Southeast Asian Film Lab.

And of course, we never fail to give you our takes on the strutters on the red carpet. Enjoy this fashion report!

The men of 'A Land Imagined' in different states of 'black tie'

basic whites and blacks, and tote bag in hand

Benjamin Heng with lots of RedBull (after a night of fighting zombies)

This year’s edition of Perspectives Film Festival was themed Institutions, focusing on films that challenge systems of order and often, oppression, within which individuals find themselves situated. As Perspectives puts it, these films are “guided by a simple premise: no one is isolated enough to resist organisation, yet not institution is formidable enough to remain unchallenged”. 

Last month, Perspectives hosted a special event titled Face to Face specifically aimed at females and female-identifying persons in Singapore’s film industry. The event featured a special screening of Se rokh | سه رخ‎ | Three Faces (2018) directed by the Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi, followed by an informal discussion with its lead actress, Behnaz Jafari. Thematically representative of the institution of patriarchy, the film, as Perspectives describes “pays tribute to the Iranian women who wish to forge their own path”. 

In the film, actress Behnaz Jafari (playing herself) receives a disturbing video from a young girl imploring for her help to leave her conservative family in order to pursue her dreams of attending a drama conservatory. Jafari travels to the northwestern Iranian province where the girl resides, assisted by her friend, the director Jafar Panahi (also playing himself). At the core of the film are the three eponymous faces of the women, each from a different generation, as they navigate the landscape of Iranian film industry in the face of the country’s enduring patriarchal traditions. 

Selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Panahi and his co-writer Nader Saeivar went on to claim the award for Best Screenplay. The film is noted for being Panahi’s fourth film under his 20-year filmmaking ban in Iran. 

The ensuing discussion primarily focused on Three Faces and Jafari’s experiences as an actor in Iran, from the beginnings of her career and her perceptions of the future of the industry.


How would you describe the state of women in the Iranian film industry today?
BJ: Currently I can say that I can see the pretty obvious changes and positive effect in the film industry. With all of the restrictions, our society can still be regarded as a “traditional society”. At the same time, these limitations are not such as a burden as I can see that women are much more present. There are a lot of women who are involved behind the scenes, especially in writing scripts, while men continue with directing. It’s a perfect mix and I think that it will bring a lot of positive changes in the future.

You shared the story of Roohangiz Saminejad, the actress in Lor Girl (1934) and you shared that she suffered from social ostracism just by virtue of being an actress. We see a similar situation in Three Faces as well with the last face, the older actress, who faces this social ostracism. Could you tell us more about this ostracism and if female actresses and filmmakers in the Iranian film industry are still facing this today?
BJ: I can say that at that time, which was over 100 years ago (note: Roohangiz Saminejad was born in 1916 and died in 1997), we had a much more traditional society with a lot more restrictions, much more than what it is today. In following her dreams to be an actress, she ignored all the restrictions and traditions that were present at the time. That’s why she faced this social ostracism. At the time, families could just abandon their daughters. Moreover, Roohangiz was also coming from a very remote area and from a small village. For girls in her time, she created an image that was important because she chose to follow her dreams in even if it meant breaking the rules. But today, I can see that with the power of cinema, social media, and communication, families are not as restrictive anymore - they can’t just abandon their girls. Even when I just started acting in theatre, my own family opposed my decision. My mother wanted me to become a doctor.


Is there any difference when you work with a female director versus a male director?
BJ: When I work with a female director, especially in scenes where you’re playing a mother or a woman who is delivering a baby, she can actually direct you in the best way—the way in which you should feel the pain or control your emotions. In comparison, with a male director, it’s me that has to tell him. As a woman, how would you actually convey those feelings, how would you convey that in the role? It’s me that’s helping him. With a female director, my work tends to be easier. In the meantime, I can say that right now, working with a male or female director doesn’t change anything for me. The important thing for me is to just learn from their knowledge and their experience. To me, being actress is all about learning. At the same time, I really want to support women in Iran and if I work with them, I’m supporting them by giving them exposure in the industry.

Panahi shows that it is difficult for the male gaze to penetrate through the female experience. Did you encounter any resistance from the male villages to collaborate during filming? Were they aware that they were representative of patriarchy? 
BJ: The location of the movie was the birthplace of the director. Given the problems that he currently has (note: Panahi’s 20-year filmmaking ban by the Iranian government), it was one of the safest places for us to film because of the pre-existing relationship between Panahi and the people there. They’ve known him since childhood. What I saw is that these people were extremely honest and friendly. They were just given the roles and everything was mostly improvised. The idea of “patriarchy” is the only thing that they know - they can’t understand what’s behind the wider politics, so you can’t expect for them to consider it as something negative.

What happened to the gift from the old man? (In the film, Jafari and Panahi receive a gift from an old man. It contained his son’s testicles).
BJ: The gift actually refers to a custom that’s not very familiar to people in Iran. It highlights the belief that you grew a generation from a boy, not a girl, showing the great importance placed upon men as opposed to women in the culture. It doesn't matter where the gift has gone as its purpose is to show that this is still something that people really believe. But if the gift was a real, I wouldn’t have even touched it! (laughs)

Was there a lot of rehearsal time before the shooting? Was it just a lot of improvisation?
BJ: We shot the movie in one month. I actually didn’t know one of the languages being spoken in the movie—Azeri. It’s one of the Turkish languages spoken in Iran and in that village. I’d worked on another film before in the south of Iran and at the time, I didn’t know the culture or the language of the people. For this movie, I was lucky because part of my role was playing this person who didn’t know this language. The other people in the film weren’t professional actors. We would just tell them the dialogue and they would say it once—if you asked them again, they would find it tiresome or repeat it in  a “fake” way. I had to keep this in mind and did my best so that if I was doing a scene with one of locals, they could deliver the line once in the most natural way.


In working in an industry that has so many traditions but at the same time is progressing, how do you stay true to yourself while being understanding, effective, and wise?
BJ: To keep myself going, I tell myself that I have to keep studying and keep up to date with what’s happening around me. Not only to better understand Iran and what’s going on in our industry, but to also know what’s happening outside in the rest of the world and within different cultures and societies. It also helps me to always work with younger generations - their ideas and their dreams have been a wonderful source of energy.