The Singapore Media Festival (SMF) 2016 gathered over 20,000 media and creative professionals, industry thought-leaders, and fans of television and film from around the world. As the tentpole international media event in Southeast Asia, the festival has provided valued opportunities to discover, innovate and network with a vibrant global media community, and introduced a string of fresh content for public audiences to look forward to in the coming year.
Hosted by the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), the festival brought together established events including the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) and ScreenSingapore (SS), Asian Television Awards (ATA), and Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), along with this year’s keystone digital event, SMF Ignite. Celebrating the best of Asian stories, SMF 2016 spotlighted good storytelling as a key pillar of the global media industry through its many conferences, labs, trade markets, screenings, and award ceremonies.
An inclusive celebration of the best of Asian Storytelling
At the opening of SMF 2016, IMDA announced two new platforms that would help take Singapore stories further to a global audience – the Singapore Film Channel, launched in partnership with home-grown online entertainment channel, Viddsee, showcasing up to 30 short films by up-and-coming independent Singapore filmmakers; as well as a pilot Public Service Broadcast initiative to produce and distribute digital video content in English and Mandarin across multimedia platforms, in partnership with Singapore Press Holdings.
The Singapore International Film Festival successfully concluded its 27th edition on 4 December, drawing a well-attended crowd of close to 13,000 festival-goers from Singapore and across the region. It showcased a total of 161 feature and short films from 52 countries, with 11 sold-out screenings of local and international films.
Celebrating the new talents of Asian Cinema, SGIFF’s Silver Screen Awards saw White Sun (Seto Surya) by Nepali director Deepak Rauniyar emerge as the Best Film of the Asian Feature Film competition; In the Year of Monkey (Prenjak) by Wregas Bhanuteja took home the award for Best Southeast Asian Short Film; and Anchorage Prohibited by Singaporean filmmaker Chiang Wei Liang won the Best Singapore Short Film award. Absent Without Leave by Malaysia’s Lau Kek-Huat also emerged as the favourite feature film among festival-goers this year, receiving the Audience Choice Award.
The region’s most prestigious industry award, the Asian Television Awards, saw a glitzy celebration for the best of talent and outstanding achievements across 46 categories. More than 1,350 entries from 17 markets across Asia and beyond vied for the top prizes of Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year, which went to Singapore’s Mediacorp Pte Ltd, as well as Terrestrial Channel of the Year, Cable and Satellite Network of the Year, and Cable and Satellite Channel of the Year, which went to Al Jazeera English.
Prominent individuals from the region were also celebrated for their contributions to the Asian media industry. SGIFF presented an Honorary Award to film director Fruit Chan, who has ceaselessly worked to push the boundaries of Hong Kong cinema, as well as the Cinema Legend Award to Hong Kong actor Simon Yam, for his lifelong dedication to acting and the arts, and his vital contribution to Asian cinema. ATA recognised Ko Dae-young, President and CEO of Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), with an Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asian Television.
Driving investment opportunities
This year’s Asia TV Forum & Market and ScreenSingapore saw record-breaking performance over the active three-day market, from show attendance to sales transactions on the market floor. The market was attended by 5,383 attendees from 54 countries, and over US$244 million worth of deals and partnerships were estimated to have been facilitated during ATF’s largest market floor to date.
At the Singapore Pavilion at the Asia Television Forum & Market, over 700 hours of compelling Asian stories through 50 film, television and animation titles of various genres were presented, including new collaborations and titles. Some of these new titles are: Dining Stars, the world’s first 8-episode Virtual Reality lifestyle series by BeVRR (Singapore) that invites viewers to dine with supermodel Rebecca Tan and her celebrity guests in award-winning restaurants, will be released on 14 December 2016.
In 2017, audiences can also look forward to Singapore-based BananaMana Films’ new romance drama feature, Jimami Tofu, which is set for a world premiere in March; as well as Salam Ramadhan UK & Salam Ramadhan Korea by Monstrou Studio and Silver Wolf International, which follows the lives of Muslims living in the United Kingdom and Korea, and how they observe Ramadhan.
The inaugural ATF Formats Pitch received international entries from 9 countries including the United States, Australia, China, Ukraine, India and Malaysia. But it was Singapore’s Xtreme Media who won over the jury in the live judging session with their pitch for Hit It – a weekly sports-themed gameshow with high-pressure comedic challenges.
Raising a new generation of storytellers
SMF’s keystone digital event, SMF Ignite, took place at IMDA’s new PIXEL Studios, providing online content creators and infocomm media professionals with a line-up of panels and hands-on workshops. The one-day event provided practical insights on content creation and monetisation opportunities across fashion and beauty, VR, gaming and e-sports sectors. It was attended by close to 400 guests, as well as fans who came to meet YouTuber personalities like Comicstorian, Unlisted Leaf, Strawburry17 and NOTGOODGAMERS.
In continued efforts to nurture and raise a new generation of storytellers, SGIFF’s Southeast Asian Film Lab awarded the Most Promising Project to Dong Phuong Thao from Vietnam for her film project Taste. The inaugural Young Critic Award – an acknowledgement of the contributions young writers make to the film landscape – was also presented to Eliza Ho, a student from Nanyang Technological University who participated in this year’s Youth Jury and Critics Programme.
ScreenSingapore’s second Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market received more than 100 project submissions representing various Southeast Asian nations. These were eventually shortlisted to the top 15 film projects, and matched with potential global investors and partners who would help these budding Asian filmmakers bring their projects to fruition. Terbalik (Malaysia) and Mamafia (Vietnam) were recognised as the top projects, receiving the Aurora Producing Award and Imaginex Studios Audio Post Production Award respectively.
