Festival Team
Emily J. Hoe
Executive DirectorAs Executive Director, Emily leads the team to ensure SGIFF continues to deliver vibrant, exciting, and engaging film experiences to the Singapore art and culture calendar.
Emily is a passionate advocate of the arts in Singapore and is determined to make a lasting contribution to the sector with respect, integrity, and humility. She has developed extensive experience in the arts over the last 12 years having held key roles at Esplanade, Singapore’s national performing arts center, and as General Manager of The Substation.
Her career in the arts is complemented by a decade in diverse media and communications roles as well as a solid foundation in retail management and customer experience.
Thong Kay Wee
Programme DirectorThong Kay Wee is a cultural worker and moving image curator based in Singapore. He is currently the Programme Director at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), where he is responsible for the festival’s overall programming strategy.
He was previously the Programmes and Outreach Officer at the Asian Film Archive (AFA) from 2014 to 2021. Aside from overseeing partnerships and promotions, he was responsible for establishing the AFA’s regular film programmes at its new dedicated cinematheque since 2019, with a focus on both contemporary and classic Asian film selections.
During his tenure at the AFA, he also developed and presided over new specialised programmes such as the Southeast Asian omnibus film Fragment (2015), the exhibition Celluloid Void: The Lost Filmes of Southeast Asia ( 2015 – 2016), the Asian Restored Classics films festival (2016 – 2019), the multidisciplinary arts exhibition series State of Motion (2016 – 2021) commissioned by National Arts Council of Singapore, the film programme Singular Screens (2018 – 2021) presented as part of the Singapore International Festival of the Arts, and the commissioning Asian cinema essay project Monographs in 2020
Programming
Vess Chua
Programme Executive
Vess is a film programmer and producer based in Singapore. She is currently the Programme Executive at the Singapore International Film Festival. She also worked with the Perspectives Film Festival, first as a Programmer in 2018, then as the Festival Director in 2019.
Business Development
Erny Melissa
Business Development Manager
Erny is an arts manager and graduate student, with a background in theatre and advertising. She loves reading fiction when she is not writing essays or proposals.
Marketing & Communications
Looi Ping
Senior Marketing Manager
Ping is Senior Marketing Manager at the Singapore International Film Festival. With over 15 years of experience in Marketing with both agency and brand management, she has managed brands across a variety of sectors.
Her love has always been in bringing brands to life through experiences and nothing beats championing a Film Festival that brings colour to Singapore’s Arts Culture.
Hospitality & Events
Mabelyn Ow
Hospitality Senior Manager
Mabelyn Ow has been an active contributor to Singapore’s burgeoning film industry over the past 18 years. Starting as a production assistant on Army Daze, Mabelyn has gone on to work in various capacities in her career in film and television production.
Over the course of her career, she has worked with and produced for some of the most significant and groundbreaking film directors in Singapore, notably Eric Khoo, Royston Tan, Jasmine Ng, and Kelvin Tong. In addition, she has also production-managed documentaries for Discovery Networks Asia and National Geographic Channel.
Her projects include Royston Tan’s 12 Lotus (2008) and Aaron Wilson’s critically acclaimed Canopy (2013). She continues her pursuit of nurturing film production in Singapore as an Adjunct Lecturer with the Puttnam School of Film at Lasalle College of The Arts.
Mabelyn spent her early years in the industry volunteering as well as being a part of the Singapore International Film Festival Secretariat during the mid-1990s. She is currently the Hospitality & Office Manager of the Singapore International Film Festival.