With Ilo Ilo's winning streak calling attention to homegrown cinema, here's a shout-out to some personal favourites from years past.

Sandcastle (2010): Boo Junfeng

Having honed his craft and voice over a number of well-received short films, his debut feature proved to be both sensitive and assured. This applies to Anthony Chen and Ilo Ilo - as well as fellow Ngee Ann Polytechnic alumnus Boo Junfeng and Sandcastle.

Boo explores personal and national history with a deeply humane touch in this family drama about a young man uncovering his father's student activist past. The storytelling is poignant and the performances nicely naturalistic.

Poetic and heartfelt, Sandcastle fulfils the promise of his short films and marks the start of a feature film career to watch.

15 (2003): Royston Tan

It is by no means perfect but this is one film that gets seared into your brain after you watch it.

Controversy over the use of real gang names and secret society chants aside, the docu-drama about a group of local juvenile delinquents is an audacious and exhilarating piece of film-making.