S’pore film-makers Anthony Chen and Kirsten Tan featured on CNN

SINGAPORE — Singaporean film-makers Anthony Chen and Kirsten Tan will be thrust into the spotlight in the CNN programme Ones To Watch. In every episode of the show, a recognised master of a particular craft identifies his or her selected “ones to watch” and explains why these chosen ones’ careers are on an upward trajectory.

In the upcoming episode, multi-award winning Chen, whose movie Ilo Ilo scored a few firsts — winning the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or and nabbing four trophies at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards — chose Tan as the film industry’s next rising star.

Chen said: “I’ve admired her for a long, long time. I think she has a very unique eye, great visuals and I like her sensibility and tone. I think that’s something quite rare from our part of the world, that black humour ... I think that if she can keep on and maintain that sensibility, that unique quality, in her feature film, she will go very, very far.”

Tan, who was born and raised in Singapore and is based in New York, is perceptibly the local film-maker to look out for. Popeye, her first feature film project, was selected earlier this year for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival’s 11th Cinefondation’s L’Atelier. She was also invited to participate in a project lab at the 2014 Berlinale Talent’s Script Station and took home the top prize of US$75,000 (S$101,700) at the TorinoFilmLab last November. Also last year, her short film Dahdi (Granny) won Best South-east Asian Short Film at the 25th Singapore International Film Festival’s Silver Screen Awards.

Popeye is being produced by Chen’s Giraffe Pictures, along with producer Huang Wenhong and Lai Weijie of E&W Films.

“I’m supremely honoured,” Tan told TODAY. “I had to read the email from CNN twice to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. In terms of film-making, I still have a long way to go but this feels like an incredible validation after 10 years of hard work. Even more mind-blowing is finding out that I’ll be in the same programme as Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, my favourite character on Game Of Thrones!”

She added that she was very touched that Chen thought of her as his “chosen one”, especially since she considers him “one of the best storytellers to have come out of Singapore”. “I honestly think that there are many worthy film-makers ‘to watch’ and am very moved that Anthony would think of me.” Genevieve Loh

Watch Kirsten Tan on July 10 at 5.30pm 
and 11.30pm on CNN (StarHub Ch 711).