Asian Feature Film Competition
A highlight of the Festival each year, the Asian Feature Film Competition is dedicated to uncovering exhilarating new cinematic visions by Asian directors making their first to third feature films.
This year’s competition sees a selection of 12 films from this generation’s most promising directors working in Asia, including six directorial debuts that herald a thrilling new wave of filmmaking talent. Through kaleidoscopic artistic approaches telling stories deeply rooted in the local, these films collectively represent the pulse of Asia’s cultural landscape.
Featured Films
A Journey in Spring
After his wife’s sudden passing, an old man grapples with strained family ties, regrets and memories evoked by the springtime rain.
PENG Tzu-Hui, WANG Ping-Wen / Taiwan / 90 min / M18 (Some Homosexual Content) / Asian Premiere
Critical Zone
In this delirious fantasia of after-dark Tehran, a drug dealer rendezvouses through the underworld to mend troubled souls.
Ali AHMADZADEH / Iran, Germany / 98 min / M18 (Drug Use and Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Dreaming & Dying
A school reunion recalls repressed desires and entangled memories in an intoxicating blend of reality and the unconscious.
Nelson YEO / Singapore, Indonesia / 77 min / NC16 (Some Mature Content) / Singapore Premiere
Hesitation Wound
In this tense courtroom drama, a criminal defence lawyer juggles difficult moral choices in her personal and professional life.
Selman NACAR / Turkey, France, Romania, Spain / 84 min / PG13 (Some Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
An absorbing treatise into spirituality and the discomfort of deciphering the divine makes its way into the canon of slow cinema.
PHAM Thien An / Vietnam, Singapore, France, Spain / 182 min / NC16 (Scene of Intimacy) / Singapore Premiere
Last Shadow at First Light
Grief and gain are intimate doubles in this family mystery that leads a Singaporean-Japanese girl to her mother’s hometown.
Nicole Midori WOODFORD / Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Slovenia, Indonesia / 106 min / PG13 (Some Mature Content) / Singapore Premiere
Monisme
Indonesia’s active volcano Merapi is place, protagonist and centre of the universe all at once in this haunting eco-drama.
Riar RIZALDI / Indonesia, Qatar / 115 min / NC16 (Sexual Violence and Coarse Language) / Asian Premiere
Morrison
In this eerily haunting film, a man encounters his past in an abandoned hotel carrying scars of the Cold War.
Phuttiphong AROONPHENG / Thailand, France / 106 min / PG13 (Some Sexual References) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Snow In Midsummer
The historical trauma of Malaysia’s ‘513’ incident permeates the present in a series of haunting tableaux that compose this operatic drama.
CHONG Keat Aun / Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan / 116 min / NC16 (Some Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
The Tenants
In this Kafkaesque reality, a soon-to-be-evicted tenant employs a bizarre subletting scheme that may be his solution.
YOON Eun-Kyung / South Korea / 90 min / PG13 (Horror and Some Coarse Language) / World Premiere
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
In this shapeshifting tale, a tenuous father−son relationship paves the way for a haunting coming-of-age journey with a metaphysical twist.
JOW Zhi Wei / Singapore, Taiwan, France, Portugal / 106 min / PG13 (Some Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Valli
A religious devotee, trapped in an enforced gender identity, plots an escape from his oppressive village in this delicately layered examination of gender fluidity.
Manoj SHINDE / India / 143 min / NC16 (Coarse Language and Some Mature Content) / World Premiere