Actress-director Shu Qi coming to town in November for Singapore International Film Festival

SINGAPORE – Taiwanese actress and film-maker Shu Qi will add star power to the 36th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) on Nov 26 for the opening-night screening of her award-winning directorial debut Girl.

Attending the red carpet event with her are the movie’s cast members, Taiwanese actress Bai Xiao-ying and singer-actress 9m88.

Girl, which Shu Qi also wrote, is a coming-of-age drama that premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. At the Busan International Film Festival that same month, she won Best Director.

The 49-year-old star also appears in the science-fiction drama Resurrection, directed by Chinese film-maker Bi Gan. It will be presented at SGIFF’s Undercurrent section for experimental film-making.

There will be an In Conversation session with Shu Qi, moderated by local Mediacorp actress and returning Festival Ambassador Rebecca Lim on Nov 27.

Shu Qi’s credits include three collaborations with renowned Taiwanese film-maker Hou Hsiao-hsien in The Assassin (2015), Millennium Mambo (2001) and Three Times (2005). She has won two Golden Horse Awards and three Hong Kong Film Awards.

SGIFF is part of the Singapore Media Festival, hosted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The 2025 edition, which runs till Dec 7, will present its Cinema Honorary Award to a female film-maker for the first time in the award’s history. Oscar-nominated Deepa Mehta, known for films that explore transnational identities and social injustices, will be receiving the festival’s highest accolade.

Films by the India-born Canadian writer-director will be screened in a retrospective showcase, Deepa Mehta In Focus. It will include her acclaimed Elements trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998) and Water (2005), as well as Funny Boy (2020), a coming-of-age story set in Sri Lanka.

SGIFF will host an In Conversation with Mehta, 75, at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium in National Gallery Singapore on Dec 5 at 7pm.

Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung will receive SGIFF’s Screen Icon Award as its first South Korean honouree. The award recognises performers whose artistry has shaped the storytelling landscape across the region.

The 78-year-old veteran has a career that spans five decades in film and television, during which she became known for portraying women who defy convention. She first gained attention for playing a scheming housemaid in Woman Of Fire (1971) by acclaimed director Kim Ki-young.

Youn’s international breakthrough came playing the spirited grandmother in a Korean-American family in the drama Minari (2020). The role earned her wins in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and British Academy Film Awards, a first for a South Korean actress.

There will be an In Conversation with Youn on Dec 6.

Acclaimed Argentinian film-maker Lucrecia Martel will be jury head of the Asian Feature Film Competition as the festival expands the competition beyond emerging directors to include film-makers at every stage of their careers.

This year’s competition line-up presents a cross-section of regional cinema, featuring A Useful Ghost by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Thailand), Always by Chen Deming (China), Amoeba by Tan Siyou (Singapore) and Cactus Pears by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India), among others.

SGIFF will also host a special red-carpet presentation of the period war epic This City Is A Battlefield by Indonesian film-maker Mouly Surya at GV VivoCity on Dec 5. She will be accompanied by Indonesian actors Chicco Jerikho, Ariel Tatum and Jerome Kurnia.

The film is a seven-country co-production set among the anti-colonial guerilla forces active in Indonesia just after World War II.

Singapore stories will be a key focus of SGIFF, with more than 30 features and shorts by local film-makers, and it has doubled its local short film selection compared with 2024. These films will be presented in the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition and Singapore Panorama sections.

They include the mockumentary Sandbox, directed by James Thoo, telling the story of a stuntman trying to keep his stunt school alive. It stars Benjamin Kheng, Estelle Fly, Nathan Hartono, Fauzi Azzhar and Oon Shu An.

Meanwhile, the documentary At Home With Work by Adar Ng and Dave Lim revolves around four home-based entrepreneurs – a permaculture farmer, somatic healer, mum-influencer and meal-prep founder – as they transform their living spaces into places of business.

Early-bird pre-sales for SGIFF 2025 start on Oct 27 at noon, while public sales will begin on Oct 31 at noon. Schedules and ticketing information will be available on sgiff.com from Oct 24 at noon.