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Sarah Cheok and Olivia Griselda reunite at Cartoons Underground this year with their latest short, “She and Her Good Vibrations.” The film represents a homecoming of sorts for the duo. We at Asian Movie Pulse encountered them at the 2021 edition, where they said they met through a two-day industry workshop hosted by *Scape alongside their project producer (and current festival director), Jerrold Chong. The short has since been making its rounds on the festival circuit, following its premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival last year.

The short is not the only thing attracting attention. In “She and Her Good Vibrations,” the protagonist – a middle-aged, stressed out, anonymous woman — finds a pink, pristine Magic Wand at her door. Her eyes light up with excitement. “Connect with yourself!” the accompanying advertisement beckons. “Better than my boyfriend,” the ratings recall. And, indeed, the vibrator turns out to be beyond her wildest dreams.

The financing and development platform at Tiffcom will take place in person for the first time.

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (Tgfm) has revealed the 15 projects selected for financing and development at Tiffcom, the content market of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

The 4th edition of Tgfm will take place in-person for the first time from October 25-27, having launched during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when all industry activity took place online.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Projects include The Fox King by Malaysia’s Woo Ming Jin, whose revenge thriller Stone Turtle premiered in competition at Locarno in...

Now in its eleventh year, a post-pandemic Cartoons Underground is returning to an in-person format at its first ever theatre venue, Projector X, at the historic former Cathay Cinema on Handy Road, on October 22, 2022, at 7 pm.

Organisers received the largest number of submissions ever, having to choose just sixteen films from almost 1,700 animators from 96 different countries. Nine animated shorts will be competing in the international competition, ‘Out of this World’, while seven by young Singapore-based animators, will be weighed by the judges for the student competition, ‘Wild Times’. All will be competing for the Best Film Award. The programme screening will be followed by a Q&a with the Singapore-based directors and a networking session, both open to all.

The festival has also joined forces with *Scape and Lasalle College of the Arts to launch Animated Visions, a series of events intended to increase access for all to the animation industry including masterclasses,...

Image caption: “The Growth” by Sarah Cheok (Singapore)

Cartoons Underground, Se Asia’s top independent animation festival, is marking 10 years of helping to propel fledgling local film makers towards greater things.

Studio heads, directors and animators, some of whose careers were launched at Cartoons Underground, are lauding the vital part it plays in encouraging a thriving independent animation sector in Singapore.

The brainchild of Singaporean festival director Vicky Chen and celebrated American animator Patrick Smith, Cartoons Underground showcases new animation from around the world but gives films from South East Asia and, especially, from Singapore-based student animators extra exposure.

Chen, who launched the event aged just 21, has long been an avid follower of the local animation scene.

“We always believed Singapore had this huge potential to be a hub for independent animation for the entire region,” she says. “When we launched Singapore was trying to tempt the big international studios.

Live action films with female leads emerged as the top favourites at the 6th National Youth Film Awards (Nyfa) ceremony. Organised by *Scape, the annual awards took place over Facebook live on Saturday and announced a total of 26 winners.

“Sunday” depicts a young woman with a full body rash, driven to violence during a forbidden encounter with her sister’s boyfriend. Directed by returning Nyfa participant Kris Ong and produced by Tan Si En, who has worked with industry veterans such as Anthony Chen and Kirsten Tan, the film was conferred Best Screenplay and Best Live Action in the Open Youth Category. Best Cinematography went to Lincoln Yeo, who is a returning Nyfa participant and now second-time winner.32-year-old actress Vicki Yang, who played the lead role in “Sunday”, walked away with the Best Actress award.

“Lady E’s Wedding Revenge Plan” written, produced, and directed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic students was awarded Best Editing,...

Eric Khoo’s love for dogs and particularly Woofy, his Pomeranian which died in 2018, is a well documented fact, with him stating in an article on 8Days.sg:

“Woofy my soul mate cameoed in all my features,” the director of Mee Pok Man and 12 Storeys tells 8days.sg. via e-mail. “From Be with Me to Ramen Shop [or Ramen Teh], but he didn’t arrive on time while we were shooting My Magic, so he didn’t appear in that one.”

Thus, as a genuine dog lover, Khoo could not pass a chance to deal with another legendary dog, Captain Hook, and the way it came to meet the co-founder of Animal Lovers League, Cathy Strong.

The film starts with the owner of a car abandoning a little brown dog on the highway, a practice which, as the end titles inform us, is not uncommon at all in Singapore. The animal is lost,...

Based on a short story by Eric Khoo, “Piece of Meat” is a stop-motion animation that uses visual metaphor in order to present a number of social comments.

The film starts with a sex scene between a champagne (=the rich client) and a lamb cutlet (the poor prostitute) with the sound communicating what is happening as eloquently as the images. As we watch the lamb cutlet move through the streets on her way home, a number of objects on screen (which represent the rich) highlight the materialism of modern society with expensive watches and shoes in contrast to art(ists) as indicated by a sign stating “will paint for food”. The comment about the displacement of art in the consumerism world is quite evident here.

The scenery then changes to a school, with the students portrayed as fruits and most of them depicted concentrating on their phones, in a comment...

The 30th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) announced its full Festival line-up at the Shangri-La Hotel today, staying true to its roots as a discovery ground of the spirited stories in Southeast Asia, an enabler to the regional filmmaking scene and talents, and a tastemaker of global developments in cinema.

A leading international film festival in the region and part of the Singapore Media Festival (Smf), Sgiff will present a dynamic array of over 90 films by auteurs from 40 countries that take the pulse of Asian and international cinema.

Sgiff’s Programme Director, Kuo Ming-Jung said, “In the past year, captivating stories told by brilliant filmmakers have unfolded in varying styles and genres across the global cinematic landscape. As with our line-up each year, we hope to bring distinctive films from around the world to the audience, while staying committed to the strong belief in giving a voice to our own...

The festivals’s long-running Silver Screen Awards includes a nine-strong Asian feature film competition, featuring several titles by first-time directors.

The Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) has revealed the line-up for its 30th edition, which runs Nov 21-Dec 1.

The festivals’s long-running Silver Screen Awards includes a nine-strong Asian feature film competition, featuring several titles by first-time directors. Most of the contenders are already award winners, including Gu Xiaogang’s Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains which earned best film and best director at First International Film Festival in Xining, Yosep Anggi Noen’s The Science Of Fictions, which received a special mention at Locarno,...