The inaugural edition of the UK’s largest Singapore film festival came to close on Saturday 13th, after enjoying several sold out screenings for opening and closing films, “Sandcastle” and “Invisible City” at the Birkbeck Cinema in Central London.
Festival Organiser, Brian Tan (Creative [SIN]ergy) deemed the festival “a remarkable experience and a big boost to cultural access to Singaporean films here in the UK.” He also went on to thank the tremendous support from all the festival sponsors that contribuetd to making the festival such a success “anchor sponsors like The Singaporean High Comission and Overseas Singapore and assistance from Singapore Airlines, Tiger Beer and Town Hall Hotels all proved invaluable in delivering a fantastic audience expeirence”. Fellow organiser, Steven Flynn (Flynn Film Co.) remarked that “this festival has shown the audience appeal for and diversity of Singaporean filmmaking. The [SIN]efest’s success should inspire filmmakers back in Singapore to continue the hard work in getting their films screened around the world”.
[SIN]efest was the first Singaporean film festival to have taken place in London in recent years and included a strong line-up of feature and short film selections curated by rising film Director Boo Junfeng. His selections included his own high profile and award winning directorial debut, “Sandcastle” alongside UK premieres for Ho Tzu Nyen’s experimental film “Here” and the documentary “Invisible City” by Tan Pin Pin. The latter of which attended a special Q & A of her film by Skype conference to the delight of the assembled audience.
Also on the programme was audience favourite “881” by Roystan Tan, award winning shorts “Tanjung Rhu” by Boo junfeng and “Haze” by Anthony Chen in addition to the short film showcase Project SlingSHORT now in its 5th edition.
Committed to raising greater cultural understanding of Singapore, the [SIN]efest also arranged a series of post-screening Q & A’s for “Sandcastle” with both Director Boo and actor, Joshua Tan attending as well as daily pre and post-film receptions.
