Filipino film Porno has been rated R21 with cuts and will be withdrawn from the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). Thus far, it is the only title pulled from the line-up.

The consumer advice given on the Media Development Authority's Film Classification Database is "sexual scenes and nudity".

The film by Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr is about three individuals linked by the pornography industry - an assassin (Yul Servo), a porn dubber (Carlo Aquino) and a transgendered person (Angel Aquino).

Several scenes were found to have exceeded the classification guidelines.

According to the classification database website, these include "a prolonged sequence where a television set screens a pornographic video with explicit sexual scenes containing close-up shots of genitalia and scenes of fellatio". There are also masturbation scenes depicting close-ups of male and female genitalia.

Under the classification guidelines, "exploitative or pornographic sexual acts and real sexual activities" and "gratuitous, exploitative or offensive depictions or sexual activity including fetishes" are not allowed for all ratings.

SGIFF director Zhang Wenjie, 38, says: "It is our usual principle that we don't show films with cuts and unfortunately, we have to withdraw Porno from the festival."

Porno was slated to be screened on Dec 9 at The Arts House as part of the SGIFF, which runs from Dec 4-14.

Tickets had not gone on sale for the movie, however. Zhang says: "We held back the sale of tickets for Porno because we were not sure about the rating for the film and we wanted to get the rating first."

Works have previously been withdrawn from the festival after they were rated with cuts. In 2008, for example, five films were withdrawn.

As for the situation this year, Zhang says: "We have received the classification advice for most of the films to be screened at the festival. The exceptions are because some of the screeners were received late but we don't foresee any classification problems with those films."